"Toyota Halts All Japanese Production, Prius Included, for 11 Days Due to Poor Sales" Green Car Advisor

Toyota Halts All Japanese Production, Prius Included, for 11 Days Due to Poor Sales

Toyota plans to halt production at all of its plants in Japan for a total of 11 days in February and March in response to flagging auto sales, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported today .

Production of the company's once-scalding Prius hybrid is included in the slowdown. A plan to produce Priuses outside Japan starting next year -- specifically, at a new plant in Mississippi -- was put on indefinite hold three weeks ago.

The automaker in November cut its production plan by 950,000 vehicles for the business year ending in March, but the company now eyes a deeper reduction given a further deterioration in car sales, NHK said.

Toyota, which had already announced a three-day suspension at all of its factories in Japan this month, plans the additional production halt for the next two months to reduce inventories, the broadcaster said.

Calls to Toyota to confirm or correct this report were not immediately returned.

As we reported earlier today, many U.S. Toyota dealers were demanding -- and getting -- as much as $5,000 over sticker for the low-emissions, fuel-efficient Priuses during a peak in their popularity this past summer.

But in December, average transaction prices were close to dealer invoice, or as much as $2,000 below sticker and a $7,000 price decline from the market peak.

Even with that kind of price cut, December's Prius sales were down almost 50 percent from July, when both gas prices and demand for hybrids in the U.S. were soaring.

According to Toyota sales reports, the automaker sold about 20,000 fewer Priuses in 2008 than in 2007.

Scott Doggett, Contributor