8:31 am, August 23, 2023
Toyota has paused production at its factory in the Czech Republic due to a fire at a local supplier.
Flames ripped through Novares CZ Zebrak’s plant in Zebrak last week, destroying production and storage facilities.
The company supplies plastic components to the Japanese carmaker, but since the fire it has been unable to deliver key parts.
As a result, Toyota has halted production at its Kolin plant, which lies around 60km east of Prague.
The factory builds the Aygo X city car and the Yaris hybrid supermini, with around 1,000 cars rolling off its lines every day. Last year it built over 202,000 cars – a rise of 35 per cent over the year before.
It’s unclear when production will recommence, said the carmaker.
Toyota spokesman Tomas Paroubek said: ‘We had to stop production yesterday evening (Aug 21).
‘This will of course have an effect on our production plan.
‘It is not clear how long will the outage last.’
Toyota began manufacturing the Yaris at its Kolin plant in 2021, becoming the second facility to build the supermini, alongside its France factory.
According to Reuters, it’s the plant’s second outage this year following a pause in February.
