After an in-depth analysis of its suppliers affected by the earthquake and tsunami, Toyota announced that global production will begin to ramp up as soon as July in Japan and August in North America, with all models back to normal production by November or December 2011.

The one-month difference in the start date is due to the time required to ship parts from Japan to overseas plants.

"To all the customers who made the decision to buy a vehicle made by us, I sincerely apologize for the enormous delay in delivery," said TMC President Akio Toyoda at a press conference in Japan yesterday announcing the normalization timeline.

Currently, manufacturing plants in Japan are working at 50 percent of capacity due to parts availability, while those in North America are operating at 30 percent of capacity because of the parts supply situation.

The company said it plans to continue procuring parts from the same suppliers, but it will consider substitute parts from other suppliers. TMC said there are approximately 150 parts affecting new-vehicle production, mainly electronic, rubber and paint-related. However, replacement parts for sales service and repair are available.

TMC also said it is continuing to do all it can to minimize the impact on employment. In North America, it was announced earlier this week that there are no plans for layoffs at manufacturing plants.

"Our entire company is committed to solving the problems before us," Toyoda said, "so that we can achieve production recovery even one day sooner."