Toyota may suspend output at 2 U.S. plants on sales falls over recalls+

NAGOYA, Feb. 16 Kyodo -
Toyota Motor Corp. is considering suspending car production at two U.S. plants
for about two weeks due to falling sales following massive recalls of its
vehicles over gas pedal and brake problems, sources familiar with the matter
said Tuesday.

Toyota is likely to suspend manufacturing operations on and off at its plants
in Kentucky and Texas mainly in late March, they said.
The Kentucky and Texas plants, which are among the five plants in North America
where Toyota halted production for five days in early February, produce the
Camry and Avalon passenger cars, and the Tundra pickup truck, respectively.
Toyota's new car sales in the United States declined 15.8 percent in January
from a year earlier to around 99,000 units, according to U.S. market research
firm Autodata.
Toyota is projecting that global sales will increase in 2010 from the previous
year due to a boost in North American and Asian markets, but the automaker may
have to revise its forecast as it is suffering a sales slump in the United
States due to the recalls.
Meanwhile, Toyota will begin repairs for the luxury Lexus HS250h hybrid sedan
and the hybrid-only Sai compact sedan in Japan from Wednesday, officials said
Tuesday amid growing pressure to step up measures to stem a spate of safety
problems dogging the automaker.
Separately, the number of deaths in the United States since 2000 that are
suspected of having been caused by the sudden acceleration of Toyota and Lexus
vehicles rose to 34, according to complaints filed to U.S. authorities,
multiple media reports said Monday.
Toyota is already offering repairs for the latest model of its best-selling
Prius hybrid after it announced a global recall for about 437,000 vehicles last
week to fix brake problems on four gas-electric hybrid models.
The company has temporarily suspended the sale and production of the Lexus
HS250h and Sai since the software necessary to fix the glitch in the antilock
brake system had not been completed at the time the recall was filed.
Toyota will begin notifying users of the two models so they can take their
vehicles to dealers to repair the program for the electronic brake system.
About 11,000 units of the Sai and about 12,000 units of the Lexus HS250h are
subject to the recall in Japan.
Production of the two hybrid models is also expected to be resumed from next
Monday, the officials said.
The automaker had initially planned to offer the repair from early March, but
it accelerated efforts to complete the software to remove the risk of drivers
encountering brake problems, they added.
According to data compiled by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, 17 cases of fatal accidents involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles
were reported in the United States from 2000 to 2009, resulting in 21 deaths.
But in the three weeks since the automaker issued a recall for 2.3 million
vehicles on Jan. 21 to fix faulty accelerator pedals, the NHTSA received
reports of nine new cases of fatal accidents from 2005 to 2010 that resulted in
13 deaths, according to U.S. media reports.
The number of complaints about the new Prius hybrid has also surged to 1,120
cases in around a week since Feb. 3 when the number stood at 124 cases. The
updated figure includes 34 accidents including six injured people.
Meanwhile, Toyota has repaired about 500,000 of the more than 2 million
vehicles it recalled over defective gas pedals and plans to carry out further
discount sales to stem a sales decline.
==Kyodo
2010-02-16 23:35:40