TodayApril 16, 2022

Japan Earthquake causes General Motors to idle pickup plant because of parts

Cars affected by Japanese earthquakes

Gas prices are rising.   small cars, and hybrids, supplies will diminish while demand grows. Just when small cars are making a comeback a catastrophe has hit that will increase the price of small cars.
This could be a nightmare for an industry that is just coming back.

Cars that are made in Japan and shipped to the United States:

Honda Fit
Honda Insight hybrid
Honda CR-Z
Honda Civic Hybrid
Acura TSX
some Honda CRVs
Toyota Yaris
Scion XD
Scion XB
Honda Jazz
Acura RL
Infiniti Rogue CUV
Infiniti Quest minivan
Nissan Cube
Nissan Leaf
Toyota Prius
75 percent of Lexus come from Japan
All Mazdas except Mazda6

The car companies are losing money each day they do not open they lose money. Bloomberg quoted Goldman Sachs that Toyota would lose $72 million dollars in profit each day it doesn’t open. Honda and Nissan will lose $24 million in profit each day.
IHS global said that $32 Billion passenger cars and $14 billion parts were imported from Japan in 2010.
ON CNBC they said that 1.7 million cars per year were imported from Japan. That works out to 37,500 per week.

Parts

Ford and Lincolns hybrids (Escape, Fusions, and Lincoln MKt) all use Sanyo battery packs made in Japan. Renault and Opel have said they would have to reduce production.

Opel

General Motors European arm, Opel, will stop production next Monday for 24 hours due to the lack of an electronic item from Japan.

Ford

Ford is working up contingency plans in the event they run out of parts. Depending on the part or commodity, this could include looking for alternative suppliers, seeing how existing suppliers can re-source, etc. But it really depends on the part. In some cases, parts and the tooling to make them are specialized that it’s difficult to find other supply sources.

General Motors

GM has suspended production at Shreveport Assembly in Louisiana for the week of March 21 due to a parts shortage resulting from the crisis in Japan. GM makes Colorado / Canyon small pickup trucks in Shreveport.
At all other plants in North America, we continue to run normal operations.
On General Motor’s website was a statement, “Like all global automakers, we will continue to follow the events in Japan closely to determine the business impact, working across the organization to maximize flexibility, supply the most critical operations, and effectively manage cost.”

Honda

Honda Motor Co said on Friday it had extended a production halt in Japan for another three days to next Wednesday. More than 80% of Honda and Acura products sold in the U.S. are produced in North America, and the vast majority of automotive parts for Honda automobiles manufactured in North America are sourced in the region.

Subaru

Subaru of America said it has suspended overtime at its plant in Lafayette, Indiana.
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), the maker of Subaru automobiles announced that it will donate 50,000,000 yen for relief and recovery efforts in communities affected by the Tohoku District-off the Pacific Ocean Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011. In addition, it will provide a total of 200 it’s industrial products (generators, light towers, and water pumps) valued at 50,000,000 yen.

Toyota

Toyota Motor Corp. said it was suspending overtime and Saturday production at its 10 plants in the region.

Nissan

The final Nissan Americas travelers in Japan will return to their home countries tomorrow, Saturday, March 19. Nissan Americas has suspended all employee travel to Japan until further notice. The company is working with it’s expatriate Americas employees as they make their own personal choices to stay or leave the country during the crisis.

Nissan Americas has visibility of more than 1,500 Nissan LEAF vehicles either in transit from Japan or at the port in the U.S. This number includes the shipment of more than 600 Nissan LEAFs which left port in Japan on March 10, the day before the earthquake.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. this week initiated the monitoring of vehicles made in Japan for any traces of radioactive material. Looking ahead, we will continue to implement all appropriate measures to reassure the public that all products from our company remain within globally accepted safety standards and until we are confident that any risk of contamination is completely removed.

Mazda

Mazda to Resume Partial Production from March 22 Following Suspensionin Wake of Major Earthquake in Northeast Japan

Listen as John Batchelor, host of the John Batchelor radio show talks to Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, www.drivingthenation.com

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Lou Ann Hammond

Lou Ann Hammond is the CEO of Carlist and Driving the Nation. She is the co-host of Real Wheels Washington Post carchat every Friday morning and is the Automotive, energy correspondent for The John Batchelor Show and a Contributor to Automotive Electronics magazine headquartered in Korea. Hammond is a founding member of the Women's World Car of the Year #WWCOTY, and board member of the Women in Automotive.