Toyota Motor Corporation has issued an update for its production in Japan and confirmed that seven days of the RAV4’s production have been cut across multiple assembly lines.
In an update to its July forecast, TMC confirmed that more delays than initially expected were planned for the end of the month, due to unexpectedly disruptive weather conditions.
Wild weather has hindered production of the RAV4 in Japan
“We have decided to make additional production suspension adjustments to some domestic plants due to the difficulty of procuring parts from a supplier caused by heavy rain damage mainly in Aichi Prefecture,” it said in a statement.
“The number of affected units will be approximately 4000 units.”
The Japanese conglomerate apologised for the delays and noted that the exact output could be lower, but it would “continue to make every effort possible to deliver as many vehicles to our customers at the earliest date.”
TMC previously announced that 16 days would be cut from a single RAV4 production line at its Takaoka Plant, but the shortages have forced the aforementioned assembly line to shut down for two more days.
A total of 23 production days across three production lines have been cut
The update has also seen two additional production lines cut by two and three days respectively, resulting in a total pause of seven days across three lines and 23 days across the entire month.
It should be noted some of these production lines are shared with vehicles not sold in Australia, such as the RAV4 plug-in hybrid and the Harrier premium midsize SUV, though they are not likely to make up the majority of vehicles built on the assembly line.
Australian supply of the RAV4 is derived directly and exclusively from Japan so some impact is likely to be felt and while the exact details remain to be seen, it’s unlikely to shorten the current wait times of 12 months or more for new buyers.
It’s unclear what impact this will have on Australian buyers
It comes just days after Toyota released its forecast for August which showed significant improvements to the stability of overall vehicle production and estimated that only a single day of interruption for the RAV4
Other vehicles have not been so lucky, with production of the Land Cruiser 300 Series predicted to shut down for 11 days in the next month, while the BZ4X midsize SUV and closely-related Subaru Solterra will slow down production for 18 days.
Toyota RAV4 2022: prices in Australia
All prices listed are before on-road costs.
- GX 2WD petrol: $34,400
- GX 2WD hybrid: $36,900
- GXL 2WD petrol: $37,950
- GX AWD hybrid: $39,900
- GXL 2WD hybrid: $40,450
- XSE 2WD hybrid: $43,250
- Cruiser 2WD petrol: $43,250
- GXL AWD hybrid: $43,450
- Cruiser 2WD hybrid: $45,750
- XSE AWD hybrid: $46,250
- Cruiser AWD hybrid: $48,750
- Edge AWD petrol: $50,200
- Edge AWD hybrid: $52,700
