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The Fast Lane

Toyota To Slow Down?

thefastlane | 22 June, 2007 03:30

The Japanese carmaker seems to have everything figured out which is evident in their sales figures. For the past years, the company from the Land of the Rising Sun has taken on the Big Three and is now considered as the largest car company in the world after it has outsold General Motors last year.

In the United States, the company has made considerable success. The Camry outsells the midsize sedans produced by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Not only that, they have also taken the fight to the Big Three by making the Tundra much bigger in order for it to be a strong challenger to the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and the Dodge Ram.

In terms of the number of production facility, they rival Ford and Chrysler and even General Motors. In the past decades or so, the Japanese car manufacturer put up factory after factory in the country. The reason for this, of course, is to appease Americans who are blaming the Japanese firm why the American auto industry is suffering its worst slum in history.

By providing jobs to millions of Americans in their assembly facilities, Toyota hoped to reduce the animosity expressed towards them. That is why there are a lot of Toyota plants in the country while General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are closing down their plants.

Recently though, Toyota announced that they will not be building additional factories in the United States. The reason for this is that the number of facilities they have in the country are reducing profit. In terms of logistics, Toyota’s facilities in the United States are scattered which poses the problem of additional cost in delivering auto parts from a facility to a vehicle assembly facility.

In fact, Toyota pointed out that it would be more profitable to build Toyota vehicles in Japan and then have them shipped into the United States as exports. This step though will result in a greater animosity from Americans which will see that Toyota is taking advantage of the strong value of yen. This animosity may lead to reduced sales and that is one thing that Toyota fears.

For now, their present assembly facilities will remain operational and will continue providing jobs to millions of Americans. While there are a lot of cities in the country courting Toyota to set up a plant in their locality, they may have to wait for an indefinite period of time before a new Toyota plant will be constructed in the country.

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