Report: Devastating earthquakes in Japan shake auto production to a halt

Photo source: BBC/Getty

Some tragic news is pinging in from Japan where the country has suffered another devastating earthquake in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushi, on April 14.

As aftershocks to this day continue to rock the region, the natural disaster has not only caused widespread damage and loss of life, it hit automaker big dogs Toyota and Lexus pretty hard as some of their largest factories are located in the Kumamoto Prefecture. There, they produce some of the companies’ most popular models for the US.

So this means, production for the Toyota Prius, Mirai, RAV4, 4Runner, Land Cruiser, and pretty much nearly all of Lexus’ lineup has been shaken to a halt. The quake has also affected Nissan while Honda’s motorcycle production had to be stopped.

The earthquake originally happened on April 14, ticking the Richter scale at 6.4 in magnitude, while a second, larger quake tipped the scale at 7.3 two days later. So far, around 42 fatalities were reported and Reuters says around nine are still missing. In addition to affecting the industry in the area, roughly 110,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: BBC; AutomotiveNews, Reuters via AutoBlog

Chris Chin

Chris Chin is the Editor-In-Chief of egmCarTech and is a regular contributor to Automobile Magazine.

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