Review Car

Earthquake Shuts Down Toyota Plants

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan demolished building and has residents scrambling to find those that they love. However, the earthquake is also affected Toyota. The automaker is shutting down plants that were near the areas in which the earthquake affected, which was as far in as Tokyo. The company started to remove the workers right after the quake occurred in order to make sure that they were in safety. 

As of right now, Toyota is not saying whether the plants are damaged from the quake or not. As they are waiting to make sure that everyone is out before they go into to access the damage that could have been caused. And it could be a while before the plants are evaluated, just because everything else is so chaotic in the region. 

But what will this mean for the automaker? They have said that this closing of these plants could affect the cars that are being delivered to the United States. Specifically, they are stating that those cars being affected would be the Yaris sedan, Scion XB, and Scion XD. The good thing though, is that nether of these models are some of their best selling models in the United States. So overall, the company is not going to see staggering sales that are going to affect them that much. 

Most people are giving praise to Toyota for their quick thinking and making sure that their employees are taken care of instead of forcing the plant to work in conditions that could be dangerous. In the hours and days that follow, the car maker should get a good idea of what damage, if any has occurred. Though there may be no damage to the plant, for those employees it still may be a long time before they return to work since many homes and vehicles that belonged to people were damaged by the quake or by the tsunami that followed the quake.