Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it has decided to suspend operations at its factories in Portugal and France for around two weeks in response to the governments' policies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The world's second-largest carmaker by sales said the plant in France, which produced 249,000 Yaris compact cars in 2018, will be halted from Wednesday to March 31.
At the Portugal plant, which manufactured around 2,000 Land Cruiser sport utility vehicles, Toyota has suspended operations for two weeks from Monday.
The suspension in Europe comes as Toyota recently brought its four vehicle factories in China back on line after temporary halts due to the China-originated, pneumonia-causing virus.
In China, the world's largest auto market, Toyota saw sales fall 70.1 percent in February from a year earlier.
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