SENDAI (Kyodo) A new plant operated by a Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary in Miyagi Prefecture began rolling out subcompacts Tuesday for export.
The first 30 Yaris Sedan subcompacts — the first batch manufactured by Central Motor Co. at its new plant in Ohira — are being shipped from Sendai to Nagoya before being exported to the United States and Europe, the company said.
Officials from Central Motor, based in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, said the company initially planned to ship 48 cars, called the Belta in Japan, from the plant, which began operations earlier this month, but failed to complete final checks on 18 of them.
The officials also said production at the Miyagi plant was partly suspended Tuesday because heavy snow hampered delivery of components.
But the automaker aims to reinforce its capacity so it can manufacture and ship 250 vehicles per day by the end of this month after its operation gets back in stride, they said.
The Tohoku region, characterized by the Miyagi plant, is the third production hub of the country's top automaker.
Toyota's other hubs include the Tokai region in central Honshu and northern Kyushu.