(April 15, 2011) The effects of the March 11 earthquake continue to adversely affect Toyota. The world's largest automaker said today it would continue building cars in Japan at half of the original rate at least until June 3.

It's been estimated that this will cost Toyota another 120,000 vehicles in lost production.

The further loss in production will probably translate to higher transaction prices for certain Toyota vehicles including the Prius hybrid. Several Lexus models will also be selling at higher prices.

Toyota, Honda, and Nissan and even some rivals overseas such as General Motors have had to stop or slash production since March 11.

A major bottleneck has come from damage to a factory belonging to Renesas Electronics, which sells about 40 percent of all automotive microcontrollers globally. With Renesas flagging a resumption of a key factory only by July, car production is expected to stay disrupted for some time.

Toyota had said last week it would resume production at all of its domestic factories starting April 18, building about half the planned volumes. It will suspend output during the country's so-called Golden Week holidays from April 28 to May 9 — three more days than planned before the earthquake — and reopen on May 10 at half the rate.

Sources: Media reports, Reuters