is a Japanese
multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in
Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by
Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation.
Toyoda ...
and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the
largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 million vehicles per year.
The company was originally founded as a spinoff of
Toyota Industries
is a Japanese machine maker. Originally, and still actively (as of 2021), a manufacturer of automatic looms, it is the company from which Toyota Motor Corporation developed. It is the world's largest manufacturer of forklift trucks measured b ...
, a machine maker started by
Sakichi Toyoda
was a Japanese inventor and industrialist. He was born in Kosai, Shizuoka. The son of a farmer and sought-after carpenter, he started the Toyoda family companies. His son, Kiichiro Toyoda, would later establish Japan's largest automaker, Toyo ...
, Kiichiro's father. Both companies are now part of the
Toyota Group
The is a group of companies that have supplier, vendor and investment relationships with Toyota Industries and Toyota Motor vehicle manufacturing facilities. It is similar to a ''keiretsu'' in that no particular entity has outright control over ...
, one of the largest conglomerates in the world. While still a department of Toyota Industries, the company developed its first product, the
Type A engine in 1934 and its first passenger car in 1936, the
Toyota AA
The A1 was the first prototype passenger car built by the company that became Toyota. It was redesigned and put into production as Toyota's first production cars, the AA sedan and the AB cabriolet. These were succeeded by the similar AE, AC and B ...
.
After World War II, Toyota benefited from Japan's alliance with the United States to learn from American automakers and other companies, which would give rise to
The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way is a set of principles defining the organizational culture of Toyota Motor Corporation. The company formalized the Toyota Way in 2001, after decades of academic research into the Toyota Production System and its implications for lean ...
(a management philosophy) and the
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile m ...
(a
lean manufacturing practice) that would transform the small company into a leader in the industry and would be the subject of many academic studies.
In the 1960s, Toyota took advantage of a rapidly growing Japanese economy to sell cars to a growing middle-class, leading to the development of the
Toyota Corolla, which would go on to become
the world's all-time best-selling automobile. The booming economy also funded an international expansion that would allow Toyota to grow into one of the
largest automakers in the world, the
largest company in Japan and the
ninth-largest company in the world by revenue, . Toyota was the world's first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year, a record set in 2012, when it also reported the production of its 200 millionth vehicle.
Toyota was praised for being a leader in the development and sales of more fuel-efficient
hybrid electric vehicle
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system (hybrid vehicle drivetrain). The presence of the electric powertrain is intended ...
s, starting with the introduction of the
Toyota Prius
The is a car built by Toyota which has a hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door sedan, it has been produced only as a five-door liftback since 2003.
In 2007, ...
in 1997. The company now sells more than 40 hybrid vehicle models around the world. However, more recently, the company has also been accused of
greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on " whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aim ...
for its skepticism of
all-electric vehicles
A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, wi ...
and its focus on the development of
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, like the
Toyota Mirai
The (from , Japanese for 'future') is a mid-size hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) manufactured by Toyota, and is one of the first FCV automobiles to be mass-produced and sold commercially. The Mirai was unveiled at the November 2014 Los Angel ...
, a technology that is costlier and has fallen far behind electric batteries. Still, in late 2022, the company signed an £11.3m government deal with the UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to help it develop its Hilux FC model, a new range of hydrogen-powered pickup trucks.
, the Toyota Motor Corporation produces vehicles under four brands:
Daihatsu
, commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture.
Historically, Daihatsu was ...
,
Hino,
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...
and the namesake Toyota. The company also holds a 20% stake in
Subaru Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate primarily involved in both terrestrial and aerospace transportation manufacturing. It is best known for its line of Subaru automobiles. Founded in 1953, the company was formerly named ( ...
, a 5.1% stake in
Mazda
, commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
, a 4.9% stake in
Suzuki, a 4.6% stake in
Isuzu, a 3.8% stake in
Yamaha Motor Corporation
is a Japanese multinational manufacturer of motorcycles, marine products such as boats and outboard motors, and other motorized products. The company was established in 1955 upon separation from Yamaha Corporation (however, Yamaha Corporation ...
, and a 2.8% stake in
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...
, as well as stakes in vehicle manufacturing joint-ventures in China (
FAW Toyota
Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (TFTM) () is an automobile manufacturing company based in Xiqing District, Tianjin, China. It is a manufacturing and supervising affiliate of the joint venture between Toyota Motor Company and First Automobile ...
and
GAC Toyota
GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. () is an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Guangzhou, China and a joint-venture between GAC Group and Toyota Motor Company
for manufacturing Toyota's model platform in the Chinese market.
It was founded ...
), the Czech Republic (
TPCA), India (
Toyota Kirloskar
Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM) is an Indian joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation (89%) and Kirloskar Group (11%), for the manufacture and sales of Toyota cars in India. The headquarters are located in Bidadi, Karnataka, ...
) and the United States (
MTMUS).
Toyota is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
,
Nagoya Stock Exchange
Nagoya Stock Exchange (名古屋証券取引所 ''Nagoya Shōken Torihikijo'', NSE) is a stock trading market in Nagoya, Japan. It is Japan's second largest exchange, behind the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
History
The Nagoya Stock Exchange (NSE) is t ...
,
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
and on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange
The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...
, where its stock is a component of the
Nikkei 225
The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...
and
TOPIX
, commonly known as TOPIX, along with the Nikkei 225, is an important stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Japan, tracking all domestic companies of the exchange's Prime market division. It is calculated and published by the ...
Core30 indices.
History
1920s1930s
![Toyota Loom Mass Production Bertel Schmitt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Toyota_Loom_Mass_Production_Bertel_Schmitt.jpg)
In 1924,
Sakichi Toyoda
was a Japanese inventor and industrialist. He was born in Kosai, Shizuoka. The son of a farmer and sought-after carpenter, he started the Toyoda family companies. His son, Kiichiro Toyoda, would later establish Japan's largest automaker, Toyo ...
invented the Toyoda Model G Automatic
Loom. The principle of ''
jidoka
Autonomation describes a feature of machine design to effect the principle of (じどうか jidouka), used in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and lean manufacturing. It may be described as "intelligent automation" or "automation with a human ...
'', which means the machine stops itself when a problem occurs, became later a part of the
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile m ...
. Looms were built on a small
production line
A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory where components are assembled to make a finished article or where materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward c ...
. In 1929, the patent for the automatic loom was sold to the British company
Platt Brothers
Platt Brothers, also known as Platt Bros & Co Ltd, was a British company based at Werneth in Oldham, North West England. The company manufactured textile machinery and were iron founders and colliery proprietors. By the end of the 19th century ...
, generating the starting capital for automobile development.
Under the direction of the founder's son,
Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation.
Toyoda ...
,
Toyoda Automatic Loom Works established an Automobile Division on September 1, 1933, and formally declared its intention to begin manufacturing automobiles on January 29, 1934.
A prototype
Toyota Type A engine The Type A engine was a straight-six engine produced from 1935 through 1947 by Toyota.
The Type B was a technically more advanced version of the Type A. There was an enlarged version of this, called the Type D, but it did not enter production.
The ...
was completed on September 25, 1934, with the company's first prototype sedan, the
A1, completed the following May. As Kiichiro had limited experience with automobile production, he initially focused on truck production; the company's first truck, the
G1, was completed on August 25, 1935, and debuted on November 21 in Tokyo, becoming the company's first production model.
Modeled on a period Ford truck, the G1 sold for ¥2,900, ¥200 cheaper than the Ford truck. A total of 379 G1 trucks were ultimately produced.
In April 1936, Toyoda's first passenger car, the
Model AA, was completed. The sales price was ¥3,350, ¥400 cheaper than
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
or
GM cars. The company's plant at Kariya was completed in May. In July, the company filled its first export order, with four G1 trucks exported to northeastern China.
On September 19, 1936, the Japanese imperial government officially designated Toyota Automatic Loom Works as an automotive manufacturer.
![1936 Toyoda Model AA 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/1936_Toyoda_Model_AA_03.jpg)
Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (トヨダ), from the family name of the company's founder,
Kiichirō Toyoda. In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Of 27,000 entries, the winning entry was the three Japanese ''
katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
'' letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. However,
Rizaburo Toyoda, who had
married into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" () because it took eight brush strokes (a lucky number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off the
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
at the end), and with a
voiceless consonant
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
instead of a
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
one (voiced consonants are considered to have a "murky" or "muddy" sound compared to voiceless consonants, which are "clear").
Since ''toyoda'' literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also prevented the company from being associated with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company began trading on August 28, 1937, as the Toyota Motor Company Ltd.
Kiichiro's brother-in-law
Rizaburo Toyoda was appointed the firm's first president, with Kiichiro as vice-president. Toyota Automatic Loom Works formally transferred automobile manufacturing to the new entity on September 29.
The Japanese government supported the company by preventing foreign competitors
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
and
General Motors from importing automobiles into Japan.
1940s
Japan was heavily damaged in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and Toyota's plants, which were used for the war effort, were not spared. On August 14, 1945, one day before the
surrender of Japan, Toyota's Koromo Plant was bombed by the
Allied forces. After the surrender, the
U.S.-led occupying forces banned passenger car production in Japan. However, automakers like Toyota were allowed to begin building trucks for civilian use, in an effort to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. The U.S. military also contracted with Toyota to repair its vehicles.
By 1947, there was an emerging global
Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U.S., who had been allies in World War II. U.S. priorities shifted (the "
Reverse Course
The is the name commonly given to a shift in the policies of the U.S. government and the U.S.-led Allied occupation of Japan as they sought to reform and rebuild Japan after World War II. The Reverse Course began in 1947, at a time of rising Co ...
") from punishing and reforming Japan to ensuring internal political stability, rebuilding the economy, and, to an extent, remilitarizing Japan. Under these new policies, in 1949, Japanese automakers were allowed to resume passenger car production, but at the same time, a new economic stabilization program to control inflation plunged the automotive industry into a serious shortage of funds, while many truck owners defaulted on their loans. Ultimately, the
Bank of Japan, the
central bank
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union,
and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...
of the country,
bailed out the company, with demands that the company institute reforms.
1950s
As the 1950s began, Toyota emerged from its financial crisis a smaller company, closing factories and laying off workers. At about the same time, the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
broke out, and being located so close to the battlefront, the U.S. Army placed an order for 1,000 trucks from Toyota. The order helped to rapidly improve the struggling company's business performance. In 1950, company executives, including Kiichiro's cousin
Eiji Toyoda
was a Japanese industrialist. He was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later, as chairman. He was succeeded as the president of Toyota by Shoi ...
, took a trip to the United States where they trained at the
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
and observed the operations of dozens of U.S. manufacturers. The knowledge they gained during the trip, along with what the company learned making looms, would give rise to
The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way is a set of principles defining the organizational culture of Toyota Motor Corporation. The company formalized the Toyota Way in 2001, after decades of academic research into the Toyota Production System and its implications for lean ...
(a management philosophy) and the
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile m ...
(a
lean manufacturing practice) that would transform the company into a leader in the manufacturing industry.
![1955 Toyopet Crown 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/1955_Toyopet_Crown_03.jpg)
Toyota started developing its first full-fledged passenger car, the
Toyopet Crown
The is an automobile which has been produced by Toyota in Japan since 1955. It is primarily a line of mid-size luxury cars that is marketed as an upmarket offering in the Toyota lineup.
Introduced in 1955 as the Toyopet Crown, it has served ...
, in January 1952. Prior to the Crown, Toyota had been outsourcing the design and manufacturing of auto bodies, which were then mounted on truck frames made by Toyota.
The project was a major test for Toyota, who would need to build bodies and develop a new chassis that would be comfortable, but still stand up to the muddy, slow, unpaved roads common in Japan at the time.
The project had been championed for many years by founder Kiichiro Toyoda, who died suddenly on March 27, 1952. The first prototypes were completed in June 1953 and began extensive testing, before the Crown went on sale in August 1955. The car was met with positive reviews from around the world.
After the introduction of the Crown, Toyota began aggressively expanding into the export market. Toyota began shipping
Land Cruiser knock-down kit
A knock-down kit (also knockdown kit, knocked-down kit, or simply knockdown or KD) is a collection of parts required to assemble a product. The parts are typically manufactured in one country or region, then exported to another country or region ...
s to Latin America in November 1955, sending complete Land Cruisers to Burma (now
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
) and the Philippines in 1956 as part of war reparations provided by the Japanese government,
establishing a branch in Thailand in June 1957, and shipping Land Cruisers to Australia in August 1957.
Toyota established a production facility in Brazil in 1958, the company's first outside of Japan.
Toyota entered the United States market in July 1958, attempting to sell the Toyopet Crown. The company faced problems almost immediately, the Crown was a flop in the U.S. with buyers finding it overpriced and underpowered (because it was designed for the bad roads of Japan, not high-speed performance). In response, exports of the Crown to the United States were suspended in December 1960.
After Kiichiro's death, his cousin
Eiji Toyoda
was a Japanese industrialist. He was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later, as chairman. He was succeeded as the president of Toyota by Shoi ...
would later become the leader of the company. Eiji helped establish the company's first plant independent from the Loom Works plant.
He would go on to lead the company for the next two decades.
1960s–1970s
![Toyota 2000GT 1968 (4120827306)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Toyota_2000GT_1968_%284120827306%29.jpg)
At the start of the 1960s, the Japanese economy was booming, a period that came to be known as the
Japanese economic miracle
The Japanese economic miracle refers to Japan's record period of economic growth between the post-World War II era and the end of the Cold War. During the economic boom, Japan rapidly became the world's second-largest economy (after the Unit ...
. As the economy grew, so did the income of everyday people, who now could afford to purchase a vehicle. At the same time, the Japanese government heavily invested in improving road infrastructure. To take advantage of the moment, Toyota and other automakers started offering affordable economy cars like the
Toyota Corolla, which would go on to become
the world's all-time best-selling automobile.
Toyota also found success in the United States in 1965 with the
Toyota Corona
The is an automobile manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota across eleven generations between 1957 and 2001. On launch, the Corona was Toyota's next to highest product in their range, just below the Crown. The Corona was marketed ...
compact car, which was redesigned specifically for the American market with a more powerful engine. The Corona helped increase U.S. sales of Toyota vehicles to more than 20,000 units in 1966 (a threefold increase) and helped the company become the third-best-selling import brand in the United States by 1967. Toyota's first manufacturing investment in the United States came in 1972 when the company struck a deal with Atlas Fabricators, to produce truck beds in Long Beach, in an effort to avoid the 25% "
chicken tax" on imported light trucks. By importing the truck as an incomplete
chassis cab
A chassis cab, also called a cab chassis or half truck, is a type of vehicle construction, often found in medium duty truck commercial vehicles.
Instead of supplying the customer with a factory pre-assembled flatbed, cargo container, or other e ...
(the truck without a bed), the vehicle only faced a 4% tariff.
Once in the United States, Atlas would build the truck beds and attach them to the trucks. The partnership was successful and two years later, Toyota purchased Atlas.
The
energy crisis of the 1970s
The 1970s energy crisis occurred when the Western world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial petroleum shortages as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period we ...
was a major turning point in the American auto industry. Before the crisis, large and heavy vehicles with powerful but inefficient engines were common. But in the years after, consumers started demanding high-quality and fuel-efficient small cars. Domestic automakers, in the midst of their
malaise era
Malaise era is a term describing U.S.-market cars from roughly 1973 to 1983. The U.S. federal government released several mandates to reduce pollution and improve the fuel efficiency and safety of cars in this era, which while successful, ultimat ...
, struggled to build these cars profitably, but foreign automakers like Toyota were well positioned. This, along with growing
anti-Japanese sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment (also called Japanophobia, Nipponophobia and anti-Japanism) involves the hatred or fear of anything which is Japanese, be it its culture or its people. Its opposite is Japanophilia.
Overview
Anti-Japanese senti ...
, prompted the U.S. Congress to consider import restrictions to protect the domestic auto industry.
The 1960s also saw the slight opening of the Japanese auto market to foreign companies. In an effort to strengthen Japan's auto industry ahead of the market opening, Toyota purchased stakes in other Japanese automakers. That included a stake in
Hino Motors, a manufacturer of large commercial trucks, buses and diesel engines, along with a 16.8 percent stake in
Daihatsu
, commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture.
Historically, Daihatsu was ...
, a manufacturer of
kei cars, the smallest highway-legal passenger vehicles sold in Japan.
That would begin what would become a long-standing partnership between Toyota and the two companies. As part of the partnership, Daihatsu would supply kei cars for Toyota to sell and to a lesser extent Toyota would supply full-sized cars for Daihatsu to sell (a process known as
rebadging
In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand (at high cost or risk), a man ...
), allowing both companies to sell a full line-up of vehicles.
1980s
![1987 Toyota Corolla (AE82) CS sedan (2015-11-11) 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/1987_Toyota_Corolla_%28AE82%29_CS_sedan_%282015-11-11%29_01.jpg)
After the successes of the 1970s, and the threats of import restrictions, Toyota started making additional investments in the North American market in the 1980s. In 1981, Japan agreed to
voluntary export restraints
A voluntary export restraint (VER) or voluntary export restriction is a measure by which the government or an industry in the importing country arranges with the government or the competing industry in the exporting country for a restriction on t ...
, which limited the number of vehicles the nation would send to the United States each year, leading Toyota to establish assembly plants in North America. The U.S. government also closed the loophole that allowed Toyota to pay lower taxes by building truck beds in America.
Also in 1981, Eiji Toyoda stepped down as president and assumed the title of chairman. He was succeeded as president by
Shoichiro Toyoda
is a Japanese retired business executive who served as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation between 1992–1999,Toyota Honorary Chairman as well as chairman of the influential beginning in May 1994 through May 1998. Under Toyoda's supervision, ...
, the son of the company's founder.
Within months, Shoichiro started to merge Toyota's sales and production organizations, and in 1982 the combined companies became the Toyota Motor Corporation. The two groups were described as "oil and water" and it took years of leadership from Shoichiro to successfully combine them into one organization.
Efforts to open a Toyota assembly plant in the United States started in 1980, with the company proposing a joint-venture with the
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
. Those talks broke down in July 1981. Eventually in 1984, the company struck a deal with
General Motors (GM) to establish a joint-venture vehicle manufacturing plant called
NUMMI
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was an American automobile manufacturing company in Fremont, California, jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota that opened in 1984 and closed in 2010.
After the plant was closed by its owners, th ...
(New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.) in
Fremont, California.
GM saw the joint venture as a way to get access to a quality small car and an opportunity to learn about The Toyota Way and the Toyota Production System. For Toyota, the factory gave the company its first manufacturing base in North America allowing it to avoid any future tariffs on imported vehicles and saw GM as a partner who could show them how to navigate the American labor environment. The plant would be led by
Tatsuro Toyoda
was the brother of Shoichiro Toyoda and the son of Toyota Motor Corporation founder, Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic l ...
, the younger brother of company president Shoichiro Toyoda.
The first Toyota assembled in America, a white Corolla, rolled off the line at NUMMI on October 7, 1986.
Toyota received its first Japanese Quality Control Award at the start of the 1980s and began participating in a wide variety of
motorsports. Conservative Toyota held on to
rear-wheel-drive
Rear-wheel drive (RWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the rear wheels only. Until the late 20th century, rear-wheel drive was the most common configuration for cars.
Most rear-wheel ...
designs for longer than most; while a clear first in overall production they were only third in production of front-wheel-drive cars in 1983, behind Nissan and Honda. In part due to this, Nissan's
Sunny managed to squeeze by the Corolla in numbers built that year.
![Lexus_LS_400_UCF10_I](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Lexus_LS_400_UCF10_I.jpg)
Before the decade was out, Toyota introduced
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...
, a new division that was formed to market and service luxury vehicles in international markets. Prior to the debut of Lexus, Toyota's two existing flagship models, the
Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
and
Century, both catered exclusively for the Japanese market and had little global appeal that could compete with international luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar. The company had been developing the brand and vehicles in secret since August 1983, at a cost of over US$1 billion.
[ Dawson, Chester (2004). ][ May, Matthew E. (2006). ''The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation'', Free Press, NY. p. 43. .] The
LS 400 flagship full-size sedan debuted in 1989 to strong sales, and was largely responsible for the successful launch of the Lexus marque.
1990s
![1998 Toyota Prius NHW10 Silver Strara Metallic (front)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/1998_Toyota_Prius_NHW10_Silver_Strara_Metallic_%28front%29.jpg)
In the 1990s, Toyota began to branch out from producing mostly compact cars by adding many larger and more luxurious vehicles to its lineup, including a full-sized pickup, the
T100 (and later the
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
), several lines of SUVs, a sport version of the
Camry
The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...
, known as the
Camry Solara. They would also launch newer iterations of their sports cars, namely the
MR2,
Celica, and
Supra
Supra may refer to:
* Supra (feast), an important part of Georgian social culture
*Toyota Supra, a sports car/grand tourer produced from 1978 to 2002, and then since 2019
*Supra (footwear brand)
*Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Assoc ...
during this era.
December 1997 saw the introduction of the
first-generation Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced
gasoline-electric hybrid
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system ( hybrid vehicle drivetrain). The presence of the electric powertrain is intende ...
car.
The vehicle would be produced exclusively for the Japanese market for the first two years.
With a major presence in Europe, due to the success of
Toyota Team Europe
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH (TGR-E), formerly Andersson Motorsport GmbH and Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), is a fully-owned and controlled entity of Toyota Motor Corporation, based in Cologne, Germany, which provides motorsport and automotiv ...
in racing, the corporation decided to set up Toyota Motor Europe Marketing and Engineering,
TMME, to help market vehicles in the continent. Two years later, Toyota set up a base in the United Kingdom,
TMUK
Established in 1989, Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd is the British manufacturing subsidiary of Toyota. The main factory is at Burnaston in Derbyshire, with an engine factory located in Deeside, North Wales. Construction of the Burnaston fac ...
, as the company's cars had become very popular among British drivers. Bases in
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, and
Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...
were also set up.
Toyota also increased its ownership of Daihatsu during this period. In 1995, Toyota increased its shareholding in the company to 33.4 percent, giving Toyota the ability to veto shareholder resolutions at the annual meeting.
In 1998, Toyota increased its holding in the company to 51.2 percent, becoming the majority shareholder.
On September 29, 1999, the company decided to list itself on the
New York and
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
s.
The later half of the 1990s would also see the Toyoda brothers step back from the company their father had founded. In 1992, Shoichiro Toyoda would shift to become chairman, allowing his brother Tatsuro to become president, a job he held until his retirement in 1995.
Shoichiro would step down as chairman in 1999. Both would retain honorary advisory roles in the company.
Hiroshi Okuda would lead the company as president from 1995 until 1999 when he became chairman and the President's office would be filled by
Fujio Cho
is honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation. In the Japanese system, that puts him in charge of the country's and world's largest automaker. Chō is only the second "outsider" to head Toyota Motor Co. since the members of the founding T ...
.
2000s
In August 2000, exports began of the Prius.
In 2001, Toyota acquired its long time partner, truck and bus manufacturer
Hino Motors. In 2002, Toyota entered
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
competition and established a manufacturing joint venture in France with French automakers
Citroën and
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
. A youth-oriented marque for North America,
Scion
Scion may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
*Scion, a playable class in the game '' Path of Exile'' (2013)
*Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series
*Scions, an alien race in the video game ''B ...
, was introduced in 2003. Toyota ranked eighth on
Forbes 2000 list of the world's leading companies for the year 2005. Also in 2005, Fujio Cho would shift to become chairman of Toyota and would be replaced as president by
Katsuaki Watanabe.
In 2007, Toyota released an update of its full-sized truck, the Tundra, produced in two American factories, one in Texas and one in Indiana. ''Motor Trend'' named the Tundra "Truck of the Year", and the 2007
Toyota Camry
The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...
"Car of the Year" for 2007. It also began the construction of two new factories, one in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, and the other in Blue Springs, Mississippi, USA.
The company was number one in global automobile sales for the first quarter of 2008.
Toyota was hit by the
global financial crisis of 2008
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
as it was forced in December 2008 to forecast its first annual loss in 70 years. In January 2009, it announced the closure of all of its Japanese plants for 11 days to reduce output and stocks of unsold vehicles.
In October 2009, Toyota announced that they were establishing an office in South Korea and launched the Camry sedan, Camry hybrid, Prius and the RAV4 during the launching event at the Grand Hyatt Seoul.
Between 2009 and 2011, Toyota
conducted recalls of millions of vehicles after reports that several drivers experienced
unintended acceleration
Sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) is the unintended, unexpected, uncontrolled acceleration of a vehicle, often accompanied by an apparent loss of braking effectiveness. Such problems may be caused by driver error (e.g., pedal misapplication), ...
. The recalls were to prevent a front driver's side
floor mat from sliding into the
foot pedal well, causing the pedals to become trapped and to correct the possible mechanical sticking of the
accelerator pedal.
At least 37 were killed in crashes allegedly related to unintended acceleration,
approximately 9 million cars and trucks were recalled,
Toyota was sued for personal injuries and wrongful deaths,
paid to settle a class action lawsuit to compensate owners for lost resale value,
and paid a criminal penalty to the United States government over accusations that it had intentionally hid information about safety defects and had made deceptive statements to protect its brand image.
![Akio Toyoda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Akio_Toyoda.jpg)
Amid the unintended acceleration scandal, Katsuaki Watanabe stepped down as company president. He was replaced by
Akio Toyoda
is a Japanese business executive and the current president of Toyota Motor Corporation. He is the great-grandson of the Japanese industrialist, Sakichi Toyoda, and the grandson of both the founder of Toyota Motors, Kiichiro Toyoda, and the found ...
, grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda, on June 23, 2009. Akio had been with Toyota since 1984, working jobs in production, marketing and product development, and took a seat on the board of directors in 2000. Akio's promotion by the board marked the return of a member of the Toyoda family to the top leadership role for the first time since 1999.
2010s
In 2011, Toyota, along with large parts of the Japanese automotive industry, suffered from a series of natural disasters. The
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six mi ...
led to a severe disruption of the supplier base and a drop in production and exports. Severe flooding during the 2011
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...
season in Thailand affected Japanese automakers that had chosen Thailand as a production base. Toyota is estimated to have lost production of 150,000 units to the tsunami and production of 240,000 units to the floods.
On February 10, 2014, it was announced that Toyota would cease manufacturing vehicles and engines in Australia by the end of 2017.
The decision was based on the unfavourable Australian dollar making exports not viable, the high cost of local manufacture, and the high amount of competition in a relatively small local market.
The company planned to consolidate its corporate functions in Melbourne by the end of 2017, and retain its Altona plant for other functions. The workforce is expected to be reduced from 3,900 to 1,300. Both
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
and
General Motors (
Holden) followed suit, ending Australian production in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
The automaker narrowly topped global sales for the first half of 2014, selling 5.1 million vehicles in the six months ending June 30, 2014, an increase of 3.8% on the same period the previous year.
Volkswagen AG
Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial ...
, which recorded sales of 5.07 million vehicles, was close behind.
In August 2014, Toyota announced it would be cutting its spare-parts prices in China by up to 35%. The company admitted the move was in response to a probe foreshadowed earlier in the month by China's
National Development and Reform Commission
The National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the State Council, which has b ...
of Toyota's Lexus spare-parts policies, as part of an industry-wide investigation into what the Chinese regulator considers exorbitantly high prices being charged by automakers for spare parts and after-sales servicing.
In November 2015, the company announced that it would invest over the next 5 years into
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
and robotics research. In 2016, Toyota invested in
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
. In 2020, a corporate governance report showed that Toyota owns 10.25 million shares of Uber, which was valued at $292.46 million as of March 30, 2020. According to Reuters, this was roughly 0.6 per cent of Uber's outstanding shares.
In March 2016, Toyota partnered with
Yanmar
is a Japanese diesel engine, heavy machinery and agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in Osaka, Japan in 1912. Yanmar manufactures and sells engines used in a wide range of applications, including seagoing vessels, pleasure boats, cons ...
to create a fiberglass pleasure boat using Yanmar outboard marine diesel engines or Toyota inboard engines.
In August 2016, the company purchased all remaining assets of Daihatsu, making the manufacturer of small cars a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota.
On August 27, 2018, Toyota announced an investment of in
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
's
autonomous car
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for Sa ...
s.
2020s
By 2020, Toyota reclaimed its position as the largest automaker in the world, surpassing
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
.
It sold 9.528 million vehicles globally despite an 11.3% drop in sales due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
This includes subsidiaries
Daihatsu
, commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture.
Historically, Daihatsu was ...
and
Hino Motors.
On April 2, 2020,
BYD and Toyota announced a new joint venture between the two companies called BYD Toyota EV Technology Co., Ltd., with the aim of "developing BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) that appeal to customers."
In March 2021, Toyota, its subsidiary Hino, and Isuzu announced the creation of a strategic partnership between the three companies. Toyota acquired a 4.6% stake in Isuzu while the latter plans to acquire Toyota shares for an equivalent value. The three companies said they would form a new joint venture by April called Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation with the aim of developing
fuel cell and
electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
light trucks. Toyota would own an 80% stake in the venture while Hino and Isuzu would own 10% each.
In April 2021, Toyota said that it will buy
Lyft
Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...
's self-driving technology unit for $550 million and merge it with its newly created
Woven Planet Holdings automation division.
In June 2021, the company defended its donations to United States
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
lawmakers after they
voted against certifying the results of the
2020 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 January:
**C ...
, saying it did not believe it was "appropriate to judge members of Congress" for that one vote. A report by
Axios Axios commonly refers to:
* Axios (river), a river that runs through Greece and North Macedonia
* ''Axios'' (website), an American news and information website
Axios may also refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Axios, a brand of suspension produ ...
found that Toyota was the top donor to 2020 election objectors, by a substantial margin. The company then reversed course in July 2021 and ceased donations to election objectors, releasing a statement saying it understood that its PAC's donations to those objectors, which far outpaced those of any other company, "troubled some stakeholders."
In December 2021, Toyota announced that it would invest ($70 billion at 2021 exchange rate) in electric vehicles by 2030, launch 30 EV models worldwide by that year, and set a sales target of 3.5 million electric vehicles in 2030.
Toyota will increase its software engineer intake to around 40% to 50% of all technical hires from the second quarter of 2022, the move plans to address a transformation to so-called CASE — connected, autonomous,
shared
Shared may refer to:
* Sharing
* Shared ancestry or Common descent
* Shared care
* Shared-cost service
* Shared decision-making in medicine
* Shared delusion (disambiguation), Shared delusion, various meanings
* Shared government
* Shared intellig ...
and electric — technologies in an environment of intensifying global competition.
In 2021, Toyota told some of its suppliers to increase their semiconductor inventory levels from the conventional three months to five months in response to the
COVID-19 chip shortage.
[ The "just-in-time" supply chain in which parts are only delivered when necessary, had already been revised after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in Japan, lifting inventories across the entire procurement network.] The time it takes Toyota to turn over its inventory increased by around 40% during the past ten years, to 36.36 days .[
In August 2022, Toyota pledged up to $5.6 billion towards production of electric vehicle battery production and announced an increase in investment in its plant near ]Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...
.
Senior leadership
* ''Chairman:'' Takeshi Uchiyamada
is a Japanese businessman, who has been chairman of Toyota since 2013. He graduated from Nagoya University. He is known as the "father of the Prius" for his role in leading the development of the Toyota Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid el ...
(2013–present)
* ''President:'' Akio Toyoda
is a Japanese business executive and the current president of Toyota Motor Corporation. He is the great-grandson of the Japanese industrialist, Sakichi Toyoda, and the grandson of both the founder of Toyota Motors, Kiichiro Toyoda, and the found ...
(2009–present)
List of former chairmen
# Rizaburo Toyoda (1937–1941)
# Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation.
Toyoda ...
(1941–1950)
# Taizo Ishida (1950–1961)
# Fukio Nakagawa (1961–1967)
# Eiji Toyoda
was a Japanese industrialist. He was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later, as chairman. He was succeeded as the president of Toyota by Shoi ...
(1967–1994)
# Shoichiro Toyoda
is a Japanese retired business executive who served as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation between 1992–1999,Toyota Honorary Chairman as well as chairman of the influential beginning in May 1994 through May 1998. Under Toyoda's supervision, ...
(1994–1999)
# Hiroshi Okuda (1999–2006)
# Fujio Cho
is honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation. In the Japanese system, that puts him in charge of the country's and world's largest automaker. Chō is only the second "outsider" to head Toyota Motor Co. since the members of the founding T ...
(2006–2013)
List of former presidents
# Shoichiro Toyoda
is a Japanese retired business executive who served as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation between 1992–1999,Toyota Honorary Chairman as well as chairman of the influential beginning in May 1994 through May 1998. Under Toyoda's supervision, ...
(1982–1992)
# Tatsuro Toyoda
was the brother of Shoichiro Toyoda and the son of Toyota Motor Corporation founder, Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic l ...
(1992–1995)
# Hiroshi Okuda (1995–1999)
# Fujio Cho
is honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation. In the Japanese system, that puts him in charge of the country's and world's largest automaker. Chō is only the second "outsider" to head Toyota Motor Co. since the members of the founding T ...
(1999–2005)
# Katsuaki Watanabe (2005–2009)
Product line
As of 2009, Toyota officially lists approximately 70 different models sold under its namesake brand, including sedans, coupes, vans, trucks, hybrids, and crossovers. Many of these models are produced as passenger sedans, which range from the subcompact Toyota Yaris
The is a supermini/ subcompact car sold by Toyota since 1999, replacing the Starlet and Tercel.
Up to 2019, Toyota had used the Yaris nameplate on export versions of various Japanese-market models, with some markets receiving the same vehi ...
, compact Corolla, to mid-size Camry
The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...
and full-size Avalon
Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...
. Minivans include the Innova, Alphard/Vellfire, Sienna
Sienna (from it, terra di Siena, meaning "Siena earth") is an earth pigment containing iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural state, it is yellowish brown and is called raw sienna. When heated, it becomes a reddish brown and is call ...
, and others. Several small cars, such as the xB and tC, were sold under the Scion
Scion may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
*Scion, a playable class in the game '' Path of Exile'' (2013)
*Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series
*Scions, an alien race in the video game ''B ...
brand.
SUVs and crossovers
Toyota SUV and crossover line-up grew quickly in the late 2010s to 2020s due to the market shift to SUVs. Toyota crossovers range from the subcompact Yaris Cross and CH-R, compact Corolla Cross
The is a compact crossover SUV (C-segment) produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota since 2020. Adopting the Corolla nameplate, it is positioned as a more practical and larger alternative to the C-HR and built on the same TNGA-C (GA-C) platf ...
and RAV4, to midsize Harrier/Venza and Kluger/Highlander. Other crossovers include the Raize, Urban Cruiser. Toyota SUVs range from the midsize Fortuner to full-size Land Cruiser. Other SUVs include the Rush, Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, FJ Cruiser, 4Runner, and Sequoia.
Pickup trucks
Toyota first entered the pickup truck market in 1947 with the SB that was only sold in Japan and limited Asian markets. It was followed in 1954 by the RK (renamed in 1959 as the Stout) and in 1968 by the compact Hilux
The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although th ...
. With continued refinement, the Hilux (simply known as the Pickup in some markets) became famous for being extremely durable and reliable. Extended cab and crew cab
A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering). ...
versions were eventually added, and Toyota continues to produce them today under various names depending on the market in various cab lengths, with gasoline or diesel engines, and 2WD and 4WD versions.
In North America, the Hilux became a major model for the company, leading the company to launch the Tacoma in 1995. The Tacoma was based on the Hilux, but with a design intended to better suit the needs of North American consumers who often use pickup trucks as personal vehicles. The design was a success and the Tacoma became the best-selling compact pickup in North America.
After the success of its compact Hilux pickups in North America, Toyota decided to enter the full-size pickup market, which was traditionally dominated by domestic automakers. The company introduced the T100 for the 1993 US model year. The T100 had a full-size long bed, but suspension and engine characteristics were similar to that of a compact pickup. Sales were disappointing and the T100 was criticized for having a small V6 engine (especially compared to the V8 engines common in American full-size trucks), lacking an extended-cab version, being too small, and too expensive (because of the 25% tariff on imported trucks). In 1995, Toyota added the more powerful V6 engine from the new Tacoma to the T100 and also added an extended cab version. In 1999, Toyota replaced the T100 with the larger Tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
, which would be built in the US with a V8 engine and styling that more closely matched other American full-size trucks.
Luxury vehicles
In the Japanese home market, Toyota has two flagship models: the Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
premium sedan and the Century limousine.
In the 1980s, Toyota wanted to expand its luxury car offerings but realized that existing Japanese-market flagship models had little global appeal and could not compete with established brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar or the Acura and Infiniti marquees being launched by Japanese competitors.
Before the decade was out, Toyota introduced Lexus, a new division that was formed to market and service luxury vehicles in markets outside of Japan. The company developed the brand and its vehicles in secret since August 1983, at a cost of over US$1 billion. The Lexus LS flagship full-size sedan debuted in 1989 to strong sales, and was largely responsible for the successful launch of the Lexus marque. Subsequently, the division added sedan, coupé, convertible
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...
and SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
models.
The Lexus brand was introduced to the Japanese market in 2005, previously all vehicles marketed internationally as Lexus from 1989 to 2005 were released in Japan under the Toyota marque.
Buses
The Toyota Coaster
The is a single-decker minibus produced by Toyota Motor Corporation. It was introduced in 1969, with the second generation introduced in 1982, followed by the third generation in 1993 and the fourth generation in late 2016. In Japan, the Coa ...
is a minibus
A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, ...
introduced in 1969 that seats 17 passengers. The Coaster is widely used in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, but also in the developing world for minibus operators in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, the Caribbean, and South America to operate as public transportation.
Technology
Hybrid electric vehicles
Toyota is the world's leader in sales of hybrid electric vehicles, one of the largest companies to encourage the mass-market adoption of hybrid vehicles across the globe, and the first to commercially mass-produce and sell such vehicles, with the introduction of the Toyota Prius in 1997. The company's series hybrid technology is called Hybrid Synergy Drive, and it was later applied to many vehicles in Toyota's product lineup, starting first with the Camry
The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...
and the technology was also brought to the luxury Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...
division.
, Toyota Motor Corporation sells 44 Toyota and Lexus hybrid passenger car models in over 90 countries and regions around the world, and the carmaker has sold over 15 million hybrid vehicles since 1997. The Prius family
The is a car built by Toyota which has a hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door sedan, it has been produced only as a five-door liftback since 2003.
In 2007, th ...
is the world's top-selling hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle nameplate
A nameplate identifies and displays a person or product's name. Nameplates are usually shaped as rectangles but are also seen in other shapes, sometimes taking on the shape of someone's written name. Nameplates primarily serve an informat ...
with almost 4 million units sold worldwide as of January 2017.
Besides the Prius, Toyota's current hybrid lineup includes the Alphard/Vellfire/Crown Vellfire, Avalon
Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...
, Aqua
Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to:
Arts
* Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color
Business
* Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...
, Camry
The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Camry ...
, C-HR/IZOA, Corolla/Levin, Corolla Cross/Frontlander, Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
, Harrier/Venza, Highlander/Kluger/Crown Kluger, Noah/Voxy, Raize, RAV4/Wildlander, Sequoia, Sienna
Sienna (from it, terra di Siena, meaning "Siena earth") is an earth pigment containing iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural state, it is yellowish brown and is called raw sienna. When heated, it becomes a reddish brown and is call ...
, Sienta, Tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
, Yaris and Yaris Cross. The Lexus current hybrid lineup consists of the ES, IS, LC, LM, LS, NX, RC, RX, and UX.
Plug-in hybrids
The Prius Plug-In Hybrid Concept was exhibited in late 2009, and shortly after, a global demonstration program involving 600 pre-production test cars began. The vehicles were leased to fleet and government customers, and were equipped with data tracking devices to allow Toyota to monitor the car's performance. The vehicle was based on the third-generation Toyota Prius and outfitted with two additional lithium-ion batteries beyond the normal hybrid battery pack. The additional batteries were used to operate the car with minimal use of the internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...
until they are depleted, at which point they are disengaged from the system. They are not used in tandem with the main hybrid battery pack.
After the conclusion of the demonstration program, the production version of the Prius Plug-in Hybrid was unveiled in September 2011. The production Prius Plug-in had a maximum electric-only speed of , and the United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...
(EPA) rated the vehicle as having an range of in blended mode
Blended mode is a charge-depleting mode of operation for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in which most of the motive energy is supplied by the battery pack but supplemented by the internal combustion engine (ICE). In contrast, all-electr ...
(mostly electric, but supplemented by the internal combustion engine). Toyota ultimately only did a small production run with 75,400 vehicles being produced between 2012 and 2016.
The second-generation Prius Plug-in (renamed the Prius Prime in the US) was unveiled in early 2016. Unlike the prior generation, where the plug-in battery was limited by being added to the existing Prius, this model would be developed in tandem with the fourth-generation Prius, allowing Toyota to increase the range to , with a top speed of , without needing the assistance of the internal combustion engine. The second-generation Prius Plug-in went on sale starting in late 2016, with Toyota expecting to sell up to 60,000 units globally per year.[ ''Around 75,000 first generation Prius plug-ins have been sold since its launch in 2012.'']
A second plug-in hybrid model, the Toyota RAV4 PHV (RAV4 Prime in the US) was unveiled in December 2019. The vehicle has an EPA-estimated of all-electric range and generates a combined , enabling it to be Toyota's second fastest car currently in production (behind the GR Supra 3.0 sports car). Sales started in mid-2020.
Battery electric vehicles
Toyota has been criticized for being slow to add battery electric vehicles to its lineup. It was publicly skeptical about battery-electric technology, and has lobbied against government mandates to transition to zero tailpipe emission vehicles.
Toyota's first all-electric vehicle was made in response to one of those government mandates. The company created the first generation Toyota RAV4 EV
The Toyota RAV4 EV is an all-electric version of the popular RAV4 SUV produced by Toyota until 2014. Two generations of the EV model were sold in California, and to fleets elsewhere in the US, with a gap of almost ten years between them.
The fi ...
after the California Air Resources Board
The California Air Resources Board (CARB or ARB) is the "clean air agency" of the government of California. Established in 1967 when then-governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford-Carrell Act, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Moto ...
mandated in the late 1990s that every automaker offer a zero-emissions vehicle
A zero-emission vehicle, or ZEV, is a vehicle that does not emit exhaust gas or other pollutants from the onboard source of power. The California definition also adds that this includes under any and all possible operational modes and conditions ...
. A total of 1,484 were leased and/or sold in California from 1997 to 2003, when the state dropped its mandate under legal pressure from lawsuits filed by automakers. At the lessees' request, many units were sold after the vehicle was discontinued.
A second generation of the RAV4 EV was developed in 2010 as part of a deal with Tesla. The production version was unveiled in August 2012, using battery pack, electronics and powertrain components from the Tesla Model S
The Tesla Model S is a battery-powered liftback car serving as the flagship model of Tesla, Inc. The Model S features a dual-motor, all-wheel drive layout, although earlier versions of the Model S featured a rear-motor and rear-wheel drive ...
. The RAV4 EV had a limited production run which resulted in just under 3,000 vehicles being produced, before it was discontinued in 2014. According to Bloomberg News, the partnership between Tesla and Toyota was "marred by clashes between engineers".
Starting in 2009, Toyota introduced three generations of concept electric vehicles called the FT-EV built on a modified Toyota iQ platform. In late-2012, the company announced plans build a production version of the car called the Toyota iQ EV (Scion iQ EV in the US, Toyota eQ in Japan), but ultimately production was cut back to 100 cars for special fleet use in Japan and the U.S. only.
In late 2012, Toyota announced that it would back away from fully electric vehicles, after producing less than 5,000. At the time, the company's vice chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, said: "''The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge''." Toyota's emphasis would be re-focused on the hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. These early electric vehicles are widely considered as compliance car
A compliance car is an alternative fuel vehicle that is explicitly designed to meet tightening government regulations for low-emission vehicle sales, while the automobile manufacturer restricts sales to specific jurisdictions to meet the rules, or ...
s, meaning that it is developed to meet California's zero-emissions standards for automakers.
A shift in Toyota's formerly battery-agnostic posture could be seen as early as 2016, when Toyota's CFO Takahiko Ijichi “sent a strong signal that Toyota soon plans to jump on the battery bandwagon and make electric cars despite expressing skeptical views about their range and charging times,” as the Wall Street Journal wrote. Toyota said it would make and sell battery-electric vehicles if and where regulations and markets demand.
A year later, Toyota outlined its electric-vehicle plans for between 2020 and 2030 to the press in Tokyo, saying it would introduce "more than 10" battery-electric vehicles worldwide by the early 2020s, beginning in China, and later in Japan, Europe, the US and India.
In April 2019, Toyota introduced the C-HR EV, its first mass-produced pure electric model in China along with an identical twin called the IZOA EV. It went on sale in April 2020 and May 2020 respectively. Nikkei reported in October 2020 that Toyota had only sold less than 2,000 units in the first eight months of the year.
Toyota introduced the C+pod in late 2020, a 2-seater kei car with an estimated range of and a top speed of .
In April 2021, Toyota revealed the bZ4X, an electric crossover SUV that will be the first vehicle built on a dedicated electric platform called e-TNGA
The Toyota New Global Architecture (abbreviated as TNGA) are modular automobile platforms that underpin various Toyota and Lexus models starting with the fourth-generation Prius in late 2015. TNGA platforms accommodate different vehicle sizes an ...
when it goes on sale in mid-2022. It is the first model of the bZ ("beyond Zero") series of battery electric vehicles. The company has also stated that there will be seven "bZ" models to be launched globally out of 15 BEV models by 2025.
In December 2021, Toyota announced in Tokyo plans for 30 battery-electric models by 2030, to sell 3.5 million BEVs per year by that date, and that its premium-brand Lexus will be 100% battery-operated by 2030 in North America, Europe, and China. The company announced investments of $70 billion into the company's electrification.
Toyota has been developing solid-state batteries
A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.
While solid electrolytes were first discovered ...
in partnership with Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...
, in which the company has more than a thousand patents covering solid-state batteries by late 2020. The technology has been implemented on the Toyota LQ concept. Toyota hopes the technology could increase efficiency of battery electric vehicles by 30 percent, which in turn would reduce battery costs by the same amount.
Hydrogen fuel-cell
In 2002, Toyota began a development and demonstration program to test the Toyota FCHV
The Toyota FCHV is a current hybrid hydrogen fuel cell vehicle development programme of the Toyota Motor Corporation, which was leased to a limited number of drivers in the United States and Japan beginning in 2002. "FCHV" stands for "Fuel Ce ...
, a hybrid
Hybrid may refer to:
Science
* Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding
** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species
** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...
fuel cell vehicle based on the Toyota Highlander
The Toyota Highlander, also known as the , is a mid-size crossover SUV with three-row seating produced by Toyota since 2000.
Announced in April 2000 at the New York International Auto Show and arriving in late 2000 in Japan and January 2001 in ...
production SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
. Toyota also built a FCHV bus based on the Hino Blue Ribbon City
The Hino Blue Ribbon (kana:日野・ブルーリボン) is a heavy-duty single-decker bus produced by Hino Motors through the J-Bus joint-venture. The range is primarily available as city bus and tourist coach. It is built by J-Bus as either ...
low-floor bus. Toyota has built several prototypes/concepts of the FCHV since 1997, including the Toyota FCHV-1
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
, FCHV-2, FCHV-3, FCHV-4, and Toyota FCHV-adv
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 m ...
. The Toyota FCV-R
The (from , Japanese for 'future') is a mid-size hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) manufactured by Toyota, and is one of the first FCV automobiles to be mass-produced and sold commercially. The Mirai was unveiled at the November 2014 Los Angele ...
fuel cell concept car was unveiled at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show
The is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recognized international show ...
. The FCV-R sedan seats four and has a fuel cell stack including a 70 MPa high-pressure hydrogen tank, which can deliver a range of under the Japanese JC08 test cycle. Toyota said the car was planned for launch in about 2015.
In August 2012, Toyota announced its plans to start retail sales of a hydrogen fuel-cell sedan in California in 2015. Toyota expects to become a leader in this technology. The prototype of its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will be exhibited at the November 2013 Tokyo Motor Show
The is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recognized international show ...
, and in the United States at the January 2014 Consumer Electronics Show.
Toyota's first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to be sold commercially, the Toyota Mirai (Japanese for "future"), was unveiled at the November 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show. In January 2015, it was announced that production of the Mirai fuel cell vehicle would increase from 700 units in 2015 to approximately 2,000 in 2016 and 3,000 in 2017. Sales in Japan began on December 15, 2014, at a price of (~). The Japanese government plans to support the commercialization of fuel-cell vehicles with a subsidy of (~). Retail sales in the U.S. began in August 2015 at a price of before any government incentives. Initially, the Mirai will only be available in California. The market release in Europe is slated for September 2015, and initially will be available only in the UK, Germany, and Denmark, followed by other countries in 2017. Pricing in Germany starts at (~) plus VAT
A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...
().
In 2015, Toyota released 5,600 patents for free use until 2020, hoping to promote global development of hydrogen fuel-cell technology.
Autonomous vehicles
Toyota is regarded as being behind in smart car technology and in need of innovation. Although the company Toyota unveiled its first self-driving test vehicle in 2017, and has been developing its own self-driving technology named "Chauffeur" (intended for full self-driving) and "Guardian" (a driver assist system), neither of these has been introduced into any production vehicles.
The company had set up a large research and development operation by 2018, spending almost US$4 billion to start an autonomous vehicle research institute in California's Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
and another ¥300 billion on a similar research institute in Tokyo that would partner with fellow Toyota Group companies and automotive suppliers Aisin Seiki
is a Japanese corporation that develops and produces components and systems for the automotive industry. Aisin is a Fortune Global 500 company, ranked 359 rankings. Aisin is a member of the Toyota Group of companies.
Aisin was founded in 196 ...
and Denso.
Toyota has also been collaborating with autonomous vehicle technology developers and, in some cases, purchasing the companies. Toyota has acquired the autonomous vehicle division of ride-hailing service Lyft
Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...
for $550 million, invested a total of US$1 billion in competing ride-hailing service Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
's self-driving vehicle division, invested $400 million in autonomous vehicle technology company Pony.ai
Pony.ai is an autonomous vehicle technology company co-located in Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
History
The company was founded in December 2016 by James Peng and Tiancheng Lou who were formerly developers for Baidu in Silicon Valle ...
, and announced a partnership with Chinese electronics e-commerce company Cogobuy to build a "Smart Car Ecosystem."
In December 2020, Toyota showcased the 20-passenger "e-Palette" shared autonomous vehicle, which was used at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...
. Toyota has announced it intends to have the vehicle available for commercial applications before 2025.
Since February 2021, Toyota has been building the sensor-laden "Woven City" which it calls a "175-acre high tech, sensor-laden metropolis" at the foot of Mount Fuji. When completed in 2024 the Woven City will be used to run tests on autonomous vehicles for deliveries, transport and mobile shops with the city's residents participating in the living laboratory experiment.
Motorsports
Toyota has been involved in many global motorsports series, providing vehicles, engines and other auto parts under both the Toyota and Lexus brands.
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota Gazoo Racing (or Toyota GR/TGR) is a motorsport/performance brand of the Japanese automaker Toyota.
Many divisions in various racing disciplines use the branding, including Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Toyota's World Rally Championship t ...
(GR) is Toyota's performance brand that is used in many of the world's major motorsports contests. Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH (TGR-E), formerly Andersson Motorsport GmbH and Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), is a fully-owned and controlled entity of Toyota Motor Corporation, based in Cologne, Germany, which provides motorsport and automotiv ...
, based in Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, Germany, competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, while the Finland-based Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT is a World Rally Championship (WRC) team based in Finland that serves as Toyota's official factory team. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala. The team made its début during the 2017 season, where ...
participates in the World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
. Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa competes in the Dakar Rally
The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal ...
. Between 2002 and 2009, the Toyota Racing team competed in Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
. Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...
in 2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
, 2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
and 2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
with a Toyota TS050 Hybrid
The Toyota TS050 Hybrid is a sports prototype racing car developed for the 2016 Le Mans Prototype rules in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The car is the direct successor of the Toyota TS040 Hybrid, which competed in both the 2014 and 201 ...
, and in 2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
with a Toyota GR010 Hybrid
The Toyota GR010 Hybrid is a sports prototype racing car developed for the 2021 Le Mans Hypercar rules in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The car is the successor of the Toyota TS050 Hybrid, which competed in the WEC from 2016 to 2020, ac ...
.
Toyota Racing Development
Toyota Racing Development (also known by its abbreviation TRD) is the in-house tuning shop for all Toyota, Lexus and formerly Scion cars. ''TRD'' is responsible both for improving street cars for more performance and supporting Toyota's racing ...
USA (TRD USA) is responsible for participation in major motorsports contests in the United States including NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
, NHRA
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a drag racing governing body, which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorsp ...
, Indy Racing League
The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...
and Formula Drift
Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...
.
Toyota also makes engines and other auto parts for other Japanese motorsports including Super Formula, Super GT, Formula 3, and Toyota Racing Series
The Formula Regional Oceania Championship is New Zealand's premier formula racing category. The series includes races for every major trophy in New Zealand circuit racing including the New Zealand Motor Cup and the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy. ...
.
Non-automotive activities
Aerospace
Toyota is a minority shareholder in Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation
, abbreviated MITAC, is a Japanese company that develops, produces, sells and supports the Mitsubishi SpaceJet (formerly MRJ) passenger airliners. The manufacturing of the aircraft is carried out by parent company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI ...
, having invested in the new venture which will produce the Mitsubishi Regional Jet
The Mitsubishi SpaceJet (, originally named ''Mitsubishi Regional Jet'') is a regional jet developed by Japanese company Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (MAC), a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) subsidiary. The airframe is made mainly in alumi ...
, slated for first deliveries in 2017. Toyota has also studied participation in the general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
market and contracted with Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to deve ...
to produce a proof of concept
Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...
aircraft, the TAA-1, in 2002.
Pleasure boats
In 1997, building on a previous partnership with Yamaha Marine, Toyota created "Toyota Marine", building private ownership motorboat
A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...
s, currently sold only in Japan. A small network in Japan sells the luxury craft at 54 locations, called the "Toyota Ponam" series, and in 2017, a boat was labeled under the Lexus brand name starting May 26, 2017.
Philanthropy
Toyota supports a variety of philanthropic work in areas such as education, conservation, safety, and disaster relief.
Some of the organizations that Toyota has worked with in the US include the American Red Cross, the Boys and Girls Club Boys & Girls Club may refer to:
* Boys & Girls Clubs of America
* Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada
* Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Clubs, Bronx, United States
* Essex Boys and Girls Clubs, in Essex and East London, England
* The Boys' and Girls' Clubs A ...
, Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF), and the National Center for Family Literacy
The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) (formerly the National Center for Family Literacy) is an organization founded to create educational and economic opportunity for the most at-risk children and parents in the United States.
Histo ...
.
The Toyota USA Foundation exists to support education in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
In addition, Toyota works with nonprofits to improve their processes and operations such as the Food Bank For New York City
Food Bank For New York City is a non-profit social services organization and the major hunger-relief organization working against hunger in the five boroughs. Its aim is to organize food, information and support for needy citizens of New York City ...
.
Toyota also supports a variety of work in Japan.
The Toyota Foundation takes a global perspective providing grants in the three areas of human and natural environments, social welfare, and education and culture.
Higher education
Toyota established the Toyota Technological Institute
The (commonly referred to as TTI) is a university located in Nagoya, Japan. Founded in 1981 by a large endowment from Toyota Motor Corporation, it originally only accepted students with some industrial work experience.
TTI has a School of Engi ...
in 1981, as Sakichi Toyoda had planned to establish a university as soon as he and Toyota became successful. Toyota Technological Institute founded the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC or TTI-Chicago) is a private graduate college and research institute focused on computer science and located in Chicago, Illinois within the University of Chicago campus. It is supported by the ear ...
in 2003. Toyota is supporter of the Toyota Driving Expectations Program, Toyota Youth for Understanding Summer Exchange Scholarship Program, Toyota International Teacher Program, Toyota TAPESTRY, Toyota Community Scholars (scholarship for high school students), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Internship Program, and Toyota Funded Scholarship. It has contributed to a number of local education and scholarship programs for the University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
, Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, and others.
Robotics
In 2004, Toyota showcased its trumpet-playing robot. Toyota has been developing multitask robots destined for elderly care
Elderly care, or simply eldercare (also known in parts of the English-speaking world as aged care), serves the needs and requirements of senior citizens. It encompasses assisted living, adult daycare, long-term care, nursing homes (often call ...
, manufacturing, and entertainment. A specific example of Toyota's involvement in robotics for the elderly is the Brain Machine Interface. Designed for use with wheelchairs, it "allows a person to control an electric wheelchair accurately, almost in real-time", with his or her mind. The thought controls allow the wheelchair to go left, right, and forward with a delay between thought and movement of just 125 milliseconds. Toyota also played a part in the development of Kirobo
Kirobo is Japan's first robot astronaut, developed by University of Tokyo and Tomotaka Takahashi, to accompany Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. Kirobo arrived on the ISS on August 10, 2013 on JAXA's ...
, a 'robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...
ic astronaut'.
In 2017, the company introduced T-HR3, a humanoid robot with the ability to be remotely controlled. The robot can copy the motions of a connected person. The 2017 version used wires for the connection but the 2018 version used 5G from a distance up to 10 km.
Agricultural biotechnology
Toyota invests in several small start-up businesses and partnerships in biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...
, including:
* P.T. Toyota Bio Indonesia in Lampung
Lampung ( Lampung: ), officially the Province of Lampung ( id, Provinsi Lampung) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest, and ...
, Indonesia
* Australian Afforestation Pty. Ltd. in Western Australia and Southern Australia
* Toyota Floritech Co., Ltd. in Rokkasho-Mura, Kamikita District, Aomori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the eas ...
* Sichuan Toyota Nitan Development Co., Ltd. in Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, China
* Toyota Roof Garden Corporation in Miyoshi-Cho, Aichi Prefecture
Sewing machine brand
Aisin
is a Japanese corporation that develops and produces components and systems for the automotive industry. Aisin is a Fortune Global 500 company, ranked 359 rankings. Aisin is a member of the Toyota Group of companies.
Aisin was founded in 196 ...
, another member of the Toyota Group
The is a group of companies that have supplier, vendor and investment relationships with Toyota Industries and Toyota Motor vehicle manufacturing facilities. It is similar to a ''keiretsu'' in that no particular entity has outright control over ...
of companies, uses the same Toyota wordmark logo to market its home-use sewing machines. Aisin was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation.
Toyoda ...
after he founded the Toyota Motor Corporation. According to Aisin, he was so pleased with the first sewing machine, he decided to apply the same Toyota branding as his auto business, despite the companies being independent from each other.
Carbon removal
Toyota Ventures, along with JetBlue
JetBlue Airways Corporation (stylized as jetBlue) is a major American low cost airline, and the seventh largest airline in North America by passengers carried. The airline is headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York C ...
Technology Ventures and Parley for the Oceans, is among the corporate investors that have invested $40 million in the Air Company, a carbon negative vodka
Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...
distiller
Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heatin ...
and perfume
Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...
and hand sanitizer manufacturer that uses heterogeneous catalysis
In chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis is catalysis where the phase of catalysts differs from that of the reactants or products. The process contrasts with homogeneous catalysis where the reactants, products and catalyst exist in the same phase. ...
to convert captured carbon into ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...
.
Controversies
Corrosion lawsuit
In November 2016, Toyota agreed to pay $3.4 billion to settle allegations that roughly one-and-a-half million of its Tacoma, Tundra, and Sequoia pickup trucks and SUVs had been outfitted with frames prone to corrosion and perforation. According to court papers, the corrosion could reach levels high enough to compromise the vehicle's structural integrity.
Death from overwork
On February 9, 2002, Kenichi Uchino, aged 30 years, a quality control manager, collapsed then died at work. On January 2, 2006, an unnamed chief engineer of the Camry Hybrid, aged 45 years, died from heart failure in his bed.
Fines for environmental breaches
In 2003, Toyota was fined $34M for violating the United States Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the United States' primary federal air quality law, intended to reduce and control air pollution nationwide. Initially enacted in 1963 and amended many times since, it is one of the United States' first and most inf ...
.
In January 2021, Toyota was fined $180M for violating U.S. emissions regulations from 2005 to 2015. At the time, this was the biggest civil penalty ever levied for violating United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...
emission reporting requirements.
2009–2011 unintended acceleration recalls
Between 2009 and 2011 Toyota, under pressure from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" rel ...
(NHTSA), conducted recalls of millions of vehicles after reports that several drivers experienced unintended acceleration
Sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) is the unintended, unexpected, uncontrolled acceleration of a vehicle, often accompanied by an apparent loss of braking effectiveness. Such problems may be caused by driver error (e.g., pedal misapplication), ...
. The first recall, in November 2009, was to prevent a front driver's side floor mat from sliding into the foot pedal well, causing the pedals to become trapped. The second recall, in January 2010, was begun after some crashes were shown not to have been caused by floor mats and may be caused by possible mechanical sticking of the accelerator pedal. Worldwide, approximately 9 million cars and trucks were impacted by the recalls.
NHTSA received reports of a total of 37 deaths allegedly related to unintended acceleration, although an exact number was never verified. As a result of the problems, Toyota faced nearly 100 lawsuits from the families of those killed, drivers who were injured, vehicle owners who lost resale value, and investors who saw a drop in the value of their shares. While most of the personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits were settled confidentially, Toyota did spend more than to settle a class action lawsuit to compensate owners for lost resale value, and the company agreed to pay a criminal penalty to the United States government over accusations that it had intentionally hid information about safety defects from the public and had made deceptive statements to protect its brand image. The penalty was the largest ever levied against a car company.
Takata airbag recalls
Toyota, like nearly every other automobile manufacturer, was impacted by the recall of faulty airbag inflators made by Takata. The inflators can explode, shooting metal fragments into the vehicle cabin. Millions of vehicles produced between 2000 and 2014 were impacted by the recall, with some needing multiple repairs.
June 2010 Chinese labour strike
On June 21, 2010, a Chinese labor strike happened in Tianjin Toyoda Gosei Co, Tianjin. Toyoda Gosei Co supplies parts to Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popula ...
.
Opposition to California's fuel efficiency standards
In October 2019, Toyota backed the Trump Administration's proposal that federal authority should override California's ability to set its own emissions standards for automobiles. The proposal would reduce California's 2025 fuel efficiency standard from about 54.5 to 37 MPG. This shift by Toyota away from fuel efficiency damaged the company's reputation as a green brand.
Greenwashing controversies
Toyota has repeatedly been the subject of greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on " whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aim ...
controversies, owing to their criticism of electric cars, while promoting hydrogen and hybrid vehicles – with the manner in which they have advertised and marketed hybrid vehicles causing particular consternation.
Toyota President, Akio Toyoda, has made repeated statements about electric cars, claiming that they are "overhyped" and that "the more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets." This stance has led Transport & Environment to rank Toyota as the least ready OEM to transition to battery electric vehicles by 2030, stating: "Toyota has not set a target for 2030 and it plans to produce just 10% BEVs in 2025. It is expected to rely on polluting hybrid technologies."
Alongside their commitment to hybrid vehicles, Toyota has repeatedly stated its commitment to producing hydrogen cars, claiming that they will be the future of the company. Many journalists and environmental activists have accused Toyota of greenwashing due to their stance on hydrogen vehicles in the face of clear evidence that they are considerably less efficient than battery electric cars, and will create more greenhouse gas emissions due to energy-intensity of the hydrogen extraction process.
Self-charging hybrids
In 2019, Toyota launched a global campaign for its self-proclaimed ‘self-charging hybrid’ vehicles, which use fossil fuel to charge the on-board batteries in their cars, rather than using an external electricity source, as with plug-in hybrids.
The language around ‘self-charging’ hybrids caused much consumer criticism that this was misleading, as the vehicles did not self-charge, but instead required users to input fossil fuels, and these vehicles could not run on electric power alone – as was made clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Toyota contacted the owners of these vehicles to inform them of the need to regularly refuel the vehicles with fossil fuels.
Complaints about self-charging hybrid advertising were recorded in multiple countries, and in 2020 the Norwegian Consumer Authority banned the adverts outright in Norway for misleading consumers, stating: “It is misleading to give the impression that the power to the hybrid battery is free of charge, since the electricity produced by the car has consumption of gasoline as a necessary condition.”.
Later in 2020, a study by Transport & Environment concluded that real-world emissions from hybrid vehicles were, on average, over two and a half times those of official test values. Another report found that even the most efficient hybrid vehicles produce at least 40-70% of the emissions of a petrol or diesel car, and will have created 15% more emissions in its manufacturer than a battery electric vehicle would have.
As the world's biggest producer and marketer of hybrid vehicles, Toyota has attracted the greatest attention in the wake of these reports, given that the Japanese manufacturer plans to increase hybrid production at a time when most major manufacturers are switching to solely producing electric vehicles by 2035 due to the contribution of cars to the Climate crisis
''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...
.
This was compounded in early 2021, when Toyota was fined a record $180 million for failing to comply with the Clean Air Act’s emissions reporting requirements from 2005 to 2015.
Misleading marketing
Toyota has also drawn negative attention for its marketing campaigns, which use studies funded by the manufacturer to substantiate claims about the efficiency of their vehicles.
An exposé by IrishEVs found that Toyota Ireland had paid University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...
to conduct a study of just seven cars over seven days to make claims about the efficiency of their hybrid vehicles.
Furthermore, Toyota Ireland had consistently used funded polls to substantiate claims about their emissions, and their perception as a “leading brand tackling climate change in Ireland.” No data or evidence was offered to validate these claims.
Electric cars recall
In June 2022, Toyota recalled 2,700 of its first mass-produced all-electric vehicles due to worries that their wheels could fall off during the drive. It was discovered that the bolts on the bZ4X's wheels can loosen up to the point where the wheel simply detaches from the car, causing the loss of control over the vehicle and possible accidents.
Corporate affairs
Toyota is headquartered in the city of Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
, which was named Koromo until 1951, when it changed its name to match the automaker. Toyota City is located in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan. The main headquarters of Toyota is located in a four-story building that has been described as "modest". In 2013, company CEO Akio Toyoda reported that it had difficulties retaining foreign employees at the headquarters due to the lack of amenities in the city.
Surrounding the headquarters are the 14-story Toyota Technical Center and the Honsha plant (which was established in 1938). Toyota and its Toyota Group affiliates operate a total of 17 manufacturing facilities in Aichi Prefecture and a total of 32 plants in Japan.
Toyota also operates offices in Bunkyo, Tokyo, and Nakamura-ku, Nagoya
is one of the 16 wards of Nagoya, Japan. As of October 1, 2019, the ward has an estimated population of 135,134 and a population density of 8,290 persons per km². The total area is 16.30 km².
History
Nakamura Ward is famous as the birth ...
.
Worldwide presence
Outside of Japan, as one of the world's largest automotive manufacturer by production volume, Toyota has factories in most parts of the world. The company assembles vehicles in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela.
Additionally, the company also has joint venture, licensed, or contract factories in China, France, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, the United States, and Vietnam.
North America
Toyota Motor North America is headquartered in Plano, Texas
Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
History
European settlers came to the area near ...
, and operates as a holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
for all operations of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Toyota's operations in North America began on October 31, 1957, and the current company was established in 2017 from the consolidation of three companies: Toyota Motor North America, Inc., which controlled Toyota's corporate functions; Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. (TMS, also known as Toyota USA) is the North American Toyota sales, marketing, and distribution subsidiary devoted to the United States market. Founded in 1957 in California, TMS currently employs more than 6,500 pe ...
which handled marketing, sales, and distribution in the United States; and Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA) is the holding company for Toyota's automobile manufacturing and research and development operations in North America. Although the company still exists for legal purposes, the c ...
which oversaw operations at all assembly plants in the region. While all three companies continue to exist in legal name, they operate as one company out of one headquarters campus.
Toyota has a large presence in the United States with six major assembly plants in Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...
, Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown is a home rule-class city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 37,086 at the 2020 census. It is the 6th-largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the seat of its county. It was original ...
, Princeton, Indiana
Princeton is the largest city in and the county seat of Patoka Township, Gibson County, Indiana, Patoka Township, Gibson County, Indiana, Gibson County, Indiana, United States. The population was 8,301 at the 2020 United States Census, and it is pa ...
, San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, Buffalo, West Virginia
Buffalo is a town in Putnam County, West Virginia, located along the Kanawha River. The population was 1,211 at the time of the 2020 census. Buffalo is a part of the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area.
History
Along with numerous sites in th ...
, and Blue Springs, Mississippi
Blue Springs is a village in Union County, Mississippi, United States. Located near Tupelo in northeastern Mississippi, the village had a population of 144 at the 2000 census. It is the site of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, Toyota's eigh ...
. In 2018, Toyota and Mazda announced a joint venture plant that will produce vehicles in Huntsville, Alabama, starting in 2021.
It has started producing larger trucks, such as the new Tundra, to go after the full-size pickup market in the United States. Toyota is also pushing hybrid electric vehicle
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system (hybrid vehicle drivetrain). The presence of the electric powertrain is intended ...
in the US such as the Prius, Camry Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, and various Lexus products. Currently, Toyota has no plans to offer diesel motor options in its North American products, including pickup trucks.
Toyota Canada Inc.
Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) is the distributor of Toyota and Lexus sedans, coupes, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and trucks in Canada. TCI's head office is located in Toronto, Ontario. It has regional offices located in Vancouver, Calgary, Montr ...
, which is part of Toyota Motor North America, handles marketing, sales, and distribution in Canada. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) operates automobile manufacturing factories in Ontario, Canada. It is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America, itself a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan. The plant assembles compact cro ...
operates three assembly plants: two in Cambridge, Ontario
Cambridge is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, located at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers. The city had a population of 138,479 as of the 2021 census. Along with Kitchener and Waterloo, Cambridg ...
and one in Woodstock, Ontario
Woodstock is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The city has a population of 40,902 according to the 2016 Canadian census. Woodstock is the seat of Oxford County, at the head of the non-navigable Thames River, approximately 128 km from ...
. In 2006, Toyota's subsidiary Hino Motors opened a heavy duty truck plant, also in Woodstock, employing 45 people and producing 2,000 trucks annually.
Europe/Western Asia
Toyota Motor Europe is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, and oversees all operations of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Europe and western Asia. Toyota's operations in Europe began in 1963. Toyota has a significant presence in Europe with nine production facilities in Kolín, Czech Republic, Burnaston, England, Deeside, England, Onnaing, France, Jelcz-Laskowice, Poland, Wałbrzych, Poland, Ovar, Portugal
Ovar ( or ) is a city and a municipalities of Portugal, municipality in Aveiro District, Baixo Vouga Subregion in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 55,398, in an area of 147.70 km2. It had 42,582 eligible voters (2006). The municipality i ...
, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, and Arifiye, Turkey. Toyota also operates a joint venture plant with Citroën and Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
in Valenciennes, France.
Australia
In 1963, Australia was one of the first countries to assemble Toyotas outside Japan. However, in February 2014, Toyota was the last of Australia's major automakers to announce the end of production in Australia. The closure of Toyota's Australian plant was completed on October 3, 2017, and had produced a total 3,451,155 vehicles. At its peak in October 2007, Toyota manufactured 15,000 cars a month. Before Toyota, Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
and GM's Holden had announced similar moves, all citing an unfavorable currency and attendant high manufacturing costs.
Financials
Toyota is publicly traded on the Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...
, Fukuoka
is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...
, and Sapporo
( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...
exchanges under company code . In Japan, Toyota's stock is a component of the Nikkei 225
The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...
and TOPIX Core30 indices.
In addition, Toyota is foreign-listed on the New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
under and on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
under .
Toyota has been publicly traded in Japan since 1949 and internationally since 1999.
Company strategy
The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way is a set of principles and behaviors that underlie the company's approach to management and production (which is further defined as the Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile m ...
).
The company has been developing its corporate philosophy since 1948 and passing it on as implicit knowledge
Tacit knowledge or implicit knowledge—as opposed to formal, codified or explicit knowledge—is knowledge that is difficult to express or extract, and thus more difficult to transfer to others by means of writing it down or verbalizing it. This ...
to new employees, but as the company expanded globally, leaders officially identified and defined the Toyota Way in 2001. Toyota summarized it under two main pillars: continuous improvement and respect for people. Under the continuous improvement pillar are three principles: challenge (form a long-term vision), kaizen (a continual improvement process
A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakth ...
), and genchi genbutsu
literally translates "real location, real thing”(meaning "the situation onsite") and it is a key principle of the Toyota Production System. The principle is sometimes referred to as "go and see." It suggests that in order to truly understand a ...
("go and see" the process to make correct decisions). Under the respect for people pillar are two principles: respect and teamwork
Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way. This concept is seen within the greater framework of a team, which is a group of interdependent individua ...
.
In 2004, Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
professor of industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information a ...
, published ''The Toyota Way''. In his book, Liker calls the Toyota Way "a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work." According to Liker, there are 14 principles of The Toyota Way that can be organized into four themes: (1) long-term philosophy, (2) the right process will produce the right results, (3) add value to the organization by developing your people, and (4) continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning. The 14 principles are further defined in the Wikipedia article on The Toyota Way.
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Way also helped shape the company's approach to production, where it was an early pioneer of what would be come to be known as lean manufacturing. The company defines the Toyota Production System under two main pillars: just-in-time (make only what is needed, only when it is needed, and only in the amount that is needed) and Jidoka
Autonomation describes a feature of machine design to effect the principle of (じどうか jidouka), used in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and lean manufacturing. It may be described as "intelligent automation" or "automation with a human ...
(automation with a human touch).
The origin of the Toyota Production System is in dispute, with three stories of its origin: (1) that during a 1950 trip to train with the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
, company executives also studied the just-in-time distribution system of the grocery store company Piggly-Wiggly, (2) that they followed the writings of W. Edwards Deming
William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical ...
, and (3) they learned the principles from a WWII US government training program (Training Within Industry
The Training Within Industry (TWI) service was created by the United States Department of War, running from 1940 to 1945 within the War Manpower Commission. The purpose was to provide consulting services to war-related industries whose personnel w ...
).
After developing the Toyota Production System in its own facilities, the company began teaching the system to its parts suppliers in the 1990s. Other companies were interested in the instruction, and Toyota later started offering training sessions. The company also has donated the training to non-profit groups to increase their efficiency and thus ability to serve people.
Logo and branding
In 1936, Toyota entered the passenger car market with its Model AA and held a competition to establish a new logo emphasizing speed for its new product line. After receiving 27,000 entries, one was selected that additionally resulted in a change of its moniker to "Toyota" from the family name "Toyoda", which means rice paddy. The new name was believed to sound better, and its eight-stroke count in the Japanese language was associated with wealth and good fortune. The original logo was a heavily stylized version of the katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
characters for Toyota ().
As the company started to expand internationally in the late 1950s, the katakana character logo was supplemented by various wordmarks with the English form of the company name in all capital letters, "TOYOTA."
Toyota introduced a worldwide logo in October 1989 to commemorate the 50th year of the company, and to differentiate it from the newly released luxury Lexus brand. The logo consists of three ovals that combine to form the letter "T", which stands for Toyota. Toyota says that the overlapping of the two perpendicular ovals inside the larger oval represents the mutually beneficial relationship and trust between the customer and the company while the larger oval surrounding both of these inner ovals represents the "global expansion of Toyota's technology and unlimited potential for the future". The new logo started appearing on all printed material, advertisements, dealer signage, and most vehicles in 1990.
In countries or regions using traditional Chinese character
Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took at ...
s, e.g. Hong Kong and Taiwan, Toyota is known as "豐田". In countries using simplified Chinese character
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the '' Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one ...
s (e.g. China and Singapore), Toyota is written as "丰田" (pronounced as ''Fēngtián'' in Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
and ''Hɔng Tshan'' in Min
Min or MIN may refer to:
Places
* Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China
** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian
* Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China
* Min River (Fujian)
* Min River (Sichuan)
* Mineola (Am ...
nanese). These are the same characters as the founding family's name "Toyoda" in Japanese.
Toyota still uses the katakana character logo as its corporate emblem in Japan, including on the headquarters building, and some special edition vehicles still use the "TOYOTA" wordmark on the grille as a nod to the company's heritage.
On July 15, 2015, the company was delegated its own generic top-level domain
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of eve ...
, .toyota.
Sports sponsorships
Toyota sponsors several teams and has purchased naming rights for several venues, and even competitions, including:
* Toyota Alvark Tokyo
Alvark Tokyo is a Japanese professional basketball team located in Tokyo. The team, which is sponsored by Toyota, currently plays in the Japanese B.League. Until 2000, the team was known as the Toyota Pacers. Founded as Toyota Pacers in 1948, ...
, basketball team
* Toyota Cup
* Toyota Center
Toyota Center is an indoor arena located in Houston. It is named after the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The arena is home to the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and it was once the home of the Hous ...
, Houston, Texas
* Toyota Center (Kennewick), Toyota Center, Kennewick, Washington
* Toyota Field, San Antonio, Texas
* Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Illinois
* Toyota Sports Center, El Segundo, California
* Toyota Stadium (Georgetown, Kentucky), Toyota Stadium, Georgetown, Kentucky
* Toyota Stadium (Texas), Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas
, Toyota is an official sponsor of Cricket Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Australian Football League, AFL. In March 2015, Toyota became a sponsor partner for the Olympic Games, in the form of supplying vehicles and communications between vehicles until 2024.
See also
* List of Toyota engines
* List of Toyota manufacturing facilities
* List of Toyota transmissions
* List of Toyota vehicles
* Nagoya Grampus, formerly the company's association football, football club and still sponsored by them
* Toyota model codes
* Toyota Verblitz, the company's rugby union, rugby team
* Toyota War, a conflict between Libya and Chad which saw a heavy use of Toyota's pickup trucks.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
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