Toyota could halt UK production – report
August 27, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Toyota could halt production at its United Kingdom production facilities in a bid to match global production with falling sales according to a report published today by Reuters Newsagency.
Japanese production will also be halted for approximately six months from early next year, Reuters said.
Toyota has also previously said it will decide this month on the future of New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI), a California-based joint venture car plant that its partner General Motors has already abandoned.
If the three moves go ahead Toyota would cut between 700,000 and 1,000,000 vehicles from its total annual output of 10 million.
The report went on to say that the extent and timing of the output cuts had not yet been set in concrete though Japan’s Nikkei business daily hinted previously that Toyota plans to reduce its global capacity were as high as 10 per cent (or 1 million vehicles) and that this could happen as early as the current financial year that ends March 31, 2010.
Although its hardly good news for the 4000 plus employees at the UK plant the move would see Toyota return to an operating profit in the 2010 fiscal year.
Print it: 
And to think it all started with a recall of a electric window switch in China….
* Knock at the door*
VW thanks you Toyota for keeping the seat warm for them .
looks similar to the golf, too bad it doesn’t go as good
Similar to the Golf, Yanzo? Please describe.
Toyota are not very popular in Europe anyway because people over there dont like white goods vehicles that are not good to drive. They would rather great cars like Focus and Fiesta that are great to drive and great to look at. I hope Australian drivers come to their senses one day and buy good cars instead of cheap Daewoo Holdens and bland Toyotas.
No Japanese car company is hugely popular in Europe just like most most European car companies are not hugely popular in other markets such as North America. Of all the Japanese car makers, Toyota however is by far the biggest seller in Europe.
It will only be a matter of time until Toyota makes a car that is good to drive and good to look at.
The poms are simply too expensive to make a profit!! That is it! They don’t make much better cars than other people than using the same tools anyway.
They already have Life Guard. Many private buyers purchase Mazda’s. All the benefits of the engineering you mentioned in the Ford’s but with Japanese Ford quality and the added, but not insignificant bonus of not having to step into a clueless, poorly run Ford dealership.
Win/Win for consumers.
Daniel D
‘Japanese ford quailty’ is an oxymoron.
Put a focus and a mazda3 side by side and it will only highlight the poor ford build quality in south africa.
the only advantage Mazda ever got out ford was selling ford their old technology. (Mondeo motors going cheap!)
Mazda is a great car company DESPITE ford not because of them. Mazda can make good business decisions unlike ford and their stupid follies.
It’s just unfortunate that there are also many very crappy Mazda dealers out there too.
Mazdaman……..how very very wrong you are. Mazda only exist today BECAUSE OF FORD. Mazda were gone and Ford saved them, get your facts right. Mazda did not sell Ford old technology because the majority of thhe engineering of many Mazdas was Ford engineering. The platforms that that the current Mazda 3 and 6 dun on is a FORD platform, not a Mazda one. The BT50\Ranger is mainly a Ford designed vehicle. Ford still have 11% share in Mazda so the model sharing and engineering partnership continues. There is also a new Ford\Mazda ute coming in a few years which is designed here in Oz.
Life Guard
Obviously you are a ford guy,
But yes in a sense that Ford did give Mazda a lifeline by buying majority stakes on them…. it did NOT mean they “engineered” Mazda vehicles.
Mazda operated separately although did share technology and engineering knowledge together, however both companies did not USE the same principles or processes as it would cost billions… so although Ford the company/corporate had stakes on Mazda, Mazda still had their own engineering departments and principles that they occasionally shared with Ford and vice versa… but both are seperate development wise.
and back on topic,
Japanese manufacturers have poor reception in Europe period… Toyota’s moves are basically a pre-emptive strategy of their new approach to Europe..
I’ve said it before but, FOCUS on Europe will be Hybrid Vehicles and those vehicles are manufactured in Japan, Thailand, France etc…
Toyota do need a kick up the bum to make them wake up in terms of taking risks in “new” cars. The big honchos are basically keeping it safe by catering to the mass buyers as opposed to the niche buyers which is great tactic… but what happens when the trend shifts?
currently Camry, Corolla, Prius etc are GLOBAL million sellers. Until the DAY those 3 models are outsold….. then Toyota DOESNT need to do anything at all…
They are working on a sports coupe, from the looks of it, it was hard to give the green light due to the niche market but when it finally did get the nod, the recession hits… which “delayed” it slightly.