Toyota South Africa Motors (Proprietary) Limited (TSAM) is an automobile manufacturer that is a subsidiary 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 ...

based in

Prospecton Prospecton is an industrial suburb located south of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. History Since 1931, the open flat undeveloped land of Prospecton which separates the two residential areas of Isipingo, Isipingo Rail inland and Isiping ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

History

In 1959, the first Toyota model, a Land Cruiser, was exported to South Africa, followed two years later by ten units of the Stout.M. Compton, T. J. Gallwey
Motor Assemblies Limited. A small South African Assembly Plant that became a major Manufacturer
2009. Production of Toyota models at Motor Assemblies began in 1962 or 1963. At the end of 1964, the sales organisation Toyota SA, which had been founded three years earlier, took over the majority of Motor Assemblies. In 1978, TSAM finally acquired 100% of the shares in Motor Assemblies.
Übersicht der Toyota Motor Corporation. The Japanese Toyota Motor Corporation initially acquired 27.8% of the shares in TSAM in 1996, increased this share to 75% in 2002 and finally to 100% in 2009. In 2006, Toyota SA surpassed BMW South Africa as the country's largest automobile exporter.Norman Lamprecht
The impact of the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) on the export strategies of the South African light motor vehicle manufacturers (1995–2008)
Dissertation an der Universität von Südafrika, Pretoria 2009. In 2014, Toyota had 8,500 employees in South Africa.

Models

At Motor Assemblies, Toyota platform trucks such as the Toyopet Stout were initially produced. From 1966, the

Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...

was also produced, which is the first passenger car produced under the Toyota brand. In November 1966, the engine production began. The

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 ...

has been manufactured in South Africa since 1970, and Hino commercial vehicles have also been produced since 1974. In May 1975, the production of the Corolla began. The following models manufactured by TSAM are also exported: the Corolla to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

since 2003 and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

since 2007 and the Hilux bakkie to

and the rest of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

since 2005. With the Toyota Conquest or Tazz, TSAM followed a similar approach (long construction time of an outdated model, relatively little model maintenance) to

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, 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 ...

with the Citi Golf and

Nissan South Africa Nissan South Africa Pty Ltd is an automobile manufacturer based in Rosslyn, South Africa, and a subsidiary of Nissan. History In the 1960s, the brothers Thys and Andries Bekker imported the first Datsun 1000 pick-up to South Africa.M. Com ...

with the Nissan 1400. The model was sold as the Conquest from 1986 and the Tazz from 1996 to 2006.Jeanette Clark
Toyota launches Tazz replacement
in: ''Moneyweb'' vom 21. Mai 2012. But from 1996 to 2006, 207,169 units of the TSAM Tazz have been sold and it was the market leader in its class in this period of eight out of eleven years. Successors of the smaller Tazz are the

Aygo The Toyota Aygo is a city car (A-segment) marketed by Toyota mainly in the European market between 2005 and 2021 across two generations. The Aygo was first displayed at the Geneva International Motor Show#2005, 2005 Geneva International Motor Sh ...

and the Etios. The one millionth Corolla was manufactured in South Africa in 2013. In 2014, the Hilux, Fortuner, all Hino models and Ses'fikile taxis were produced from kits at the Toyota plant in Prospecton near

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

.Charles Cornew
African adventures
in: ''Automotive Manufacturing Solutions'' vom 4. November 2014. In Q4 2021, Toyota started assembling the

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 ...

in South Africa.

References

External links

* {{Automotive industry in South Africa Toyota Car manufacturers of South Africa Companies based in KwaZulu-Natal Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1961 1961 establishments in South Africa South African subsidiaries of foreign companies eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality