A massive damage to the IT systems this morning paralyzed production at twelve of the fourteen plants of the Toyota group in Japan, however, the largest car manufacturer in the world assured that it does not consider at this stage that it is something suspicious, that is, that it suffered a cyber attack.

A total of 12 vehicle manufacturing plants, or “25 production lines”, are unable to “handle orders for parts due to a technical fault”, a Toyota spokeswoman told AFP. “At the moment we don’t think it’s a cyber attack,” he added.

The group’s share, which had opened higher on the Tokyo stock exchange, was in the red (-0.6%) at around 05:20, while the Nikkei index was up (+0.16%).

Last year, Toyota was forced to suspend all production in Japan for a day due to a cyber attack on one of its suppliers, Kojima Industries.

After being hit last year by disrupted supply chains and a shortage of semiconductors, Toyota’s production ramped up dramatically at the start of the year. Its global production topped 5.6 million vehicles in the first six months of 2023, up 10.3% year-on-year and breaking the group’s six-month record, according to figures released by management in late July.

The group (which also includes the Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands) expects to sell 11.38 million vehicles globally in the current financial year 2023/2024, a record figure that would mark a year-on-year increase of 7.8%.