NYDailyNews.com - Toyota could continue to feel the effects of Japan's catastrophic tsunami and earthquake into the end of this year.
The carmaker's global vehicle production won't be fully back up to speed until November or December, officials at the world's biggest automaker said Friday.
The March 11 disaster, which resulted in thousands of deaths and crippled a major nuclear plant, caused parts shortages that rippled through the global auto industry.
Aftershocks and power outages have continued to hamper efforts to get production back on track, Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters at a Tokyo news conference.
The company's domestic factories are working at about half capacity. Toyota executives said production of some vehicles should ramp up in July or August, although they didn't specify which models.
Toyota said earlier it had lost production of 260,000 vehicles in Japan since the disaster.
Car buyers' concerns about radiation-tainted exports from Japan have prompted the country's automakers to start testing vehicles, industry officials said earlier this week.
The 9.0-magnitude quake caused radiation to leak from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and has heightened worries about contaminated parts and vehicles.
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said 10 cars out of every 5,000 are being checked. In addition, it said tests taken around production facilities and ports showed radiation levels that are not harmful to human health.
