Toyota will resume production at its Deeside engine plant this week, following the recent reopening of plants in France and Poland, foreign media reported. In the wake of the outbreak, Toyota is betting on online retail to weather the crisis, which it says will become the "new normal." The worry, though, is how Toyota will address the inventory shortfalls that Toyota's dealers are reporting.

Toyota is expected to resume production at its Deeside engine plant this week. The plant in north wales, England, which employs 600 workers, stopped production on March 18 because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Employees will return to work on May 11 for several days of safety training in order to resume production on Wednesday May 13, initially at a lower level than normal. Toyota says it has implemented comprehensive health and safety regulations.

"Due to the recent reopening of plants in France and Poland, the company will gradually resume production at its two other production sites in Europe from May 11," a Toyota spokesman said. The TMMT Toyota plant in Sakarya, Turkey, which makes the Toyota c-hr and Corolla sedan, will resume production on May 11.

Toyota will also resume production next week at its Deeside engine plant in wales, which makes petrol and hybrid engines for its TMMT plant."

He added: "the plant will resume work in the same gradual manner, including two days of training and familiarisation with the new safety protocols, ensuring social distancing and hygiene measures are in place, and will gradually resume production from May 13."

The decision to restart the plants was based on a variety of considerations, but ultimately on ensuring the safe operation of these plants through the implementation of thorough and comprehensive health and social distancing advice."

Preparing for the "new normal" of online retail

After years of internal development, Toyota North America launched its SmartPath online sales tool for Toyota and lexus dealerships last September. What Toyota didn't expect was that the online sales method, which allows customers to complete the purchase process at home, quickly gained popularity among dealers in the United States.

Add in an outbreak that could upend the industry and the world, and all of Toyota's preparations are beginning to pay off. These dealers have seen the importance of online sales to their business, and Toyota is stepping up its plans to promote SmartPath among dealers nationwide, doubling its first-year dealer participation goal.

Toyota and lexus sold 84,694 vehicles in April, almost double the Japanese carmaker's forecast. About a third of Toyota's and lexus's 1,482 delivery contracts in the United States were reached online as the government ordered a halt to a rise in novel coronavirus cases.

This is thanks to dealers quickly learning to trade and interact with consumers isolated from their homes, and building the supporting infrastructure that will eventually make this online interaction the new retail standard.

Bob carter, Toyota's head of north American sales, said: "in particular times, if we're lucky, we'll be ahead of the curve." He explained that the "vast majority" of Toyota and lexus retail sales in the us in April were made through online transactions and home delivery.

"Consumers and our dealers have embraced the new ways of selling online and delivering to your door," carter said. When this becomes standardized, and I'm still not saying it's going to be the majority, it's going to be the new normal, and it's really accelerating the shift to digital online sales."

SmartPath is an in-house software program that allows dealers to promote new cars in real time on their websites, toyota.com and regional web portal buyatoyota.com, with accurate dealer pricing, incentives and local taxes.

It allows customers to get accurate payment and trade-in estimates online, and they can do so from home while the rest is handed over to resellers, who can access the orders by name on the tablet.

So far, fewer than a dozen dealers have fully adopted SmartPath, but "the overall interest, demand, and acceptance of SmarthPath from dealers has increased significantly each week since the outbreak began," said puth. Toyota and lexus dealers first learned about the software at a dealer meeting in Las Vegas in September.

Carter said: "now, online retail business is highly complex, for you will be the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) computer, dealers of DMS systems, financial computer together, especially considering that in many states registered a car would involve the sales tax, so the data is accurate to the county level, rather than the level of the entire state."

"Cars are not like selling anything else, so it will take us a while to finally get there and do it the right way," he said. But we are moving forward, and the trend is accelerating."

Dealers are short of stock

Online dealers at Toyota and lexus may have a bigger worry: how to get inventory in the coming months. Shutdowns and higher-than-expected sales could mean some models run out of inventory as early as June or July.

David hult, chief executive of Asbury Automotive Group, told Automotive news last week: "most Toyota dealers have very low daily supply and it's going to be a difficult process to get it back. If today's indicators continue at this pace, Asbury will be in short supply of Toyota and lexus vehicles by early June."

While stocks are already low, Mr. Carter said dealers should not expect a downturn caused by a novel coronavirus to be as severe as in 2008-09.

"The financial crisis brought a lot of inventory and put a lot of pressure on oems and distributors," he said. But it was different. The novel coronavirus outbreak actually reduced retail demand and led the auto industry to shut down production almost simultaneously.

"I think you'll see that we need to act differently because when you take six weeks of production out of the industry, it takes a while for the impact to reach the retail consumer."