Toyota Is Having Problems Building Cars

Toyota is viewed as the canary in the coal mine for trends in the Japanese auto industry, so this announcement has raised eyebrows around the globe. The world's largest automaker said it cut 50,000 vehicles from its June outlook, which is now down to 800,000 vehicles. This move comes days after the automaker slashed its forecast by 100,000 vehicles due to chip shortage issues.

Toyota has an expansive catalog, with vehicles in several popular categories, but the shutdown impacts some of its most popular models. The4Runner, Corolla, Prius, andRAV4will be affected, so the suspension will likely reduce already constrained inventories of those vehicles. Toyota's already had to delay the all-new bZ4X EV and the few units up for sale areseeing huge markups, so the automaker's new vehicle rollouts are also being affected.

Toyota may be the largest automaker, but it's hardly the only one suffering from pandemic-related shutdowns and supply chain issues. Many automakers are removing popular features from vehicles to work around missing microchips. Several are cutting their production outlooks to accommodate the delays and speedbumps that come from a hobbled supply chain.

Subaru is in a particularly tight spot, as it has warned dealers of a massive new vehicle shortage, and Honda has cut its forecast by 20 percent at two of its US facilities. Ford haspaused production of some models multiple times, and many others temporarily closed production facilities throughout 2021 and into 2022.