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Report: Toyota to Emphasize Production of Smaller Cars in US
14 September 2006
The Asahi Shimbun reports that Toyota will shift its strategy for the North American market to fuel-efficient small and mid-size cars in response to high gasoline prices and a slowing US economy.
As a result, Toyota will operate its new Texas plant—which produces the full-size Tundra pickup—at less than full capacity initially, according to the report. Output in 2007 is planned to be about 150,000 units, down from the capacity of 200,000.
Toyota will double production of the Camry to 200,000 units a year with production support from Subaru’s Indiana plant. Subaru Indiana is the US subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries, in which Toyota took an 8.7% stake last October. In addition to the Camry production at the Fuji Heavy subsidiary, Toyota’s second plant in Ontario, Canada is scheduled to be completed in 2008.
After US production of the Camry doubles in October 2007, Toyota plans to stop exporting the model to North America from Japan, according to the report. The Tsutsumi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, which makes the Camry for the North American market, will instead increase production of the Prius gas-electric hybrid for export to North America.
September 14, 2006 in Fuel Efficiency, Market Background, Vehicle Manufacturers | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by: Max Reid | September 21, 2006 at 11:27 AM
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Duncan : You raised a very valid point.
Even I used to wonder why Aveo-5 Door which weighs only 2343 lbs has 27/37 mileage with Manual while Cobalt which weighs 3216 lbs has 25 / 34 with Manual (just 2-3 lesser).
Actually Corolla / Civic Automatics give more mileage. No wonder they are selling so well while Aveo/Cobalt lags.
It looks as though they are deliberately ignoring small vehicles and the mileage.
Still Big-3 bets on SUV while its clear that CUV's have overtaken SUV's since July-2006 and are continuing to increase the lead. Thru 1st 8 months of this year, CUV sales are up 7 % while SUV sales are down 16 %.