Two more Toyota plants coming to North America
First the Tundra, then a Camry in NASCAR, now they are building trucks in Texas?! The line between domestic and import cars will become even fuzzier as Toyota continues its assault on becoming the number one auto manufacturer in North America and the world.
Over the next 2-3 years, they will add two more assembly plants in North America, bringing the total to seven including the Subaru facility in Indiana. Plans for the new facilities are to build the Yaris and an as-of-yet unnamed sport-utility. With five North American vehicle manufacturing plants currently cranking out 4,200 vehicles daily (1.55 million in 2005), including the Tacoma, Corolla, Camry, Lexus RX350, Tundra, Sequoia, Sienna, Solara, and Avalon, we can only fear what is next. The newest facility in San Antonio, Texas is building the 2007 Tundra pick-up truck. Hmm, a Japanese automaker building trucks in Texas. Someone at Toyota is laughing all the way to the bank.
[Source: CNNMoney.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ramsport47 7:42AM (10/30/2006)
Since they are stealing jobs from Americans, they may as well build plants to give some of them jobs back
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Avinash Machado 7:43AM (10/30/2006)
Well perhaps Toyota hopes that by building vehicles in North America they can appeal to those patriotic buyers who generally avoid buying imports. Time will tell whether they are successful in this regard or not.
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bernie 7:47AM (10/30/2006)
What's to "fear" about Toyota's expansion. Toyota, Honda and Nissan are growing and creating American jobs while the Big 1 3/4 is laying tens of thousands off.
The only people who need to be fearful are the UAW. For the rest of the nation it's all good!
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TalD 7:54AM (10/30/2006)
TM has been making many Georgrtwon, KY residents very comfortable for quite a few years now by building some very decent automobiles.
What choices did you want when TM built that plant?
Certainly not a unreliable, antiquated technilogical product tha was available from the big 3.
GM, DCX, F have made great strides to level the playing field by building better cars, but is it too little too late?
Yes TM is advancing in the U.S but at least there will be US citizens doing the work.
Seems like we can't have our cake and eat it too; not any more that is.
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Scott 8:05AM (10/30/2006)
North America does not necessarily mean United States. Don't get your hopes up too high yet.
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DarkKnight67 8:32AM (10/30/2006)
Bernie,
Is it truly helpful to us? Where do those profits go ... certainly not into our social security!
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DarkKnight67 8:33AM (10/30/2006)
Sorry, didn't mean Bernie ... meant ramsport47.
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Pizza the Hut 8:36AM (10/30/2006)
Assuming those 2 plants are in the United States, that will bring the total of Toyota plants up to 12. They still have a ways to go to beat out General Motors as far as their US manufacturing presence is concerned(54 manufacturing plants in the United States, from what I understand).
Lets face it, Toyota builds nice cars, and definitely employs quite a few people in our country, but they are certainly not an American company, no matter how their North American management tries to spin it.
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gs 8:54AM (10/30/2006)
It's Ironic that more and more Domestic brands are built in Mexico while more and more Japanese brands are built in the USA. But this is just as much business smarts as it is image building for Toyota. It is cheaper for them to build there cars in the USA, than it is to build them in Japan then ship them to the USA. The "we are American too" image they are touting is just icing on their cake.
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WhiteGrace 9:08AM (10/30/2006)
Hey folks...Who builds all of our TVs, stereos, cameras, associated electronics, everything in Walmart? The far east. And that is where they are built.
And as a follow up to the Social Security comment about where the profits go. Well, American workers checks have a deduction for FICA. You see the amount deducted from your checks for FICA. Your employer has to match it penny for penny. So, some of their potential profits do go to quote, "Social Security", albeit it all still goes to the general fund in Washington and is used to fund 'everything'.
And so far we haven't had any scandals about these foreign owned companies not paying their corporate taxes to Uncle Sam. At least none that I am aware of. They are probably more diligent than some native US companies. They are after guests here and operate with the permission of your Federal and State governments. Well, maybe they haven't been exposed yet. And finally, sadly, even taxes that Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW, and Mercedes (all have US factories) get mishandled and ear marked away just like your taxes.
So call your representatives and chew their ears off.
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Kevin White 9:29AM (10/30/2006)
Any data on how having these facilities in the US has affected quality/reliability? I'd like to hear quality control is just as high, but I'd rather get the answer from the facts.
I've known more than a few people over the years who bought Japanese cars not only because they were designed by the Japanese, but specifically because they were built somewhere besides the US.
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Adam 9:40AM (10/30/2006)
"Since they are stealing jobs from Americans"
errrr, how? care to explain that one?
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jeffinToronto 10:05AM (10/30/2006)
For all of the posters who complain at this news, which is better - a Ford being built in Mexico, or a Toyota being built in the U.S.? It is a complicated economic model and has many economic spin offs for any economy where they are built and/or sold. This is a global industry now, and countries are begging car companies for manufacturing or assembly plants. Be thankful it didn't go to China. The big 3 had protection for decades and are still losing the market.
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Ron539 10:10AM (10/30/2006)
It was well rumored that toyota was involved in a move to create a giant factory near Weyer's Cave, Virginia, just off I-81 and near the I-64 intersection. Don't know what the current status of the project is.
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leo 1:00PM (10/30/2006)
all I can say that while GM spend a few bilion to build a plant in China, TM, Nissan, Hyundai and Honda are spending billions building their plants here
I guess those few billions din't go to the US huh?
If F, GM, Chy keep laying people off, I don't mind those jobs being replaced by other car manufacturers
+
GM, F, Chy just got cought up with their hands in their pockets and they will come up again, but it is a few years to late and the damege may have already been done. I put the blame on GM, F, Chy for having thought they could control the American market based on nationalizm and patriotism. it is a free market adn they should have been studying it a lot closer.
Product is what they need, and please don't say a Malibu or G6 is just as good - cause if you do you obviously have not driven the competition
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Richard Warren 11:19AM (10/30/2006)
While it’s great that an Import decides to build in America (maybe, in this case, North America) there are a few things to consider that seem forgotten.
A recent GAO study found that 71 percent of foreign-controlled corporations operating in the United States paid no taxes.
IRS data also show that foreign-owned corporations doing business here typically pay far less or nothing in U.S. income taxes than do purely American firms with comparable sales and assets.
The problems with taxation of multinational companies stem mainly from the complicated, often unworkable approach used to try to determine how much of a corporation's worldwide earnings relate to its U.S. activities, and therefore are subject to U.S. tax. In essence, the IRS must try to scrutinize every movement of goods and services between a multinational company's domestic and foreign operations, and then attempt to assure that a fair, "arm's length" "transfer price" was assigned (on paper) to each real or notional transaction.
*** Companies have a huge incentive to pretend that their American operations pay too much or charge too little to their foreign operations for goods and services (for tax purposes only), thereby minimizing their U.S. taxable income.
Say a big American company has $10 billion in total sales--half in the U.S. and half in Germany--and $8 billion in total expenses--again half and half (in reality). With $1 billion in actual U.S. profits and a 35% tax rate, the company ought to pay $350 million in U.S. income taxes. But suppose that for U.S. tax purposes, the company is able to treat 5/8th of its expenses--or $5 billion--as U.S.-related. If you do the arithmetic, you’ll see that leaves it with zero U.S. taxable profit. Although our tax system has rules to mitigate this kind of abuse, companies still have plenty of room to maneuver
Intel, won a case in the Tax Court letting it treat millions of dollars in profits from selling U.S.-made computer chips as Japanese income for U.S. tax purposes--and therefore exempt from U.S. tax--even though a tax treaty between the U.S. and Japan requires Japan to treat the profits as American--and therefore exempt from Japanese tax. As too often happens, the profits thus became "nowhere income"--not taxable anywhere
Those “untaxed” corporations had $3.5 trillion in revenues.
Now the same loopholes are used by American Corporations, but to a far lesser extent.
While in this case Toyota is hiring folks, paying them pretty well, they may not be paying any corporate taxes which give them an unfair competitive advantage.
The other question not asked about the “American Image” is where does the money come from to build the new plant and it’s financing? American banks and investors or Japanese? If you factor in what interest is paid and how the money flows is Toyota really waving the American flag to make us all feel good?
Like I said at the start Toyota building a plant and putting folks to work is a good thing, but there is more to it than that.
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Koba 11:33AM (10/30/2006)
Good job Richard, a nice insinutaions.
Using your logic, because there is opportunity for a company to do wrong, we should hold them responsible for that opportunity? I can only assume that's why you brought all of this up. And yes, any US job created by any company is a good thing, and I for one and grateful for the money that Toyota has poured into my community. So while I hold them as contemptable as all other corporations I must admit that:
1) They employ people in my community at a plant that produces a popular vehicle that looks to bring job security for the workforce for a VERY long time.
2) They build a helluva car.
So for the time being, either make an accusation based on FACTS, or go ramble about potential corporate abuses elsewhere.
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ramsport47 11:49AM (10/30/2006)
Don't get me wrong...I don't necessarily like this, but they are putting people that are getting layed off by the domestics back to work. I'm sure the domestics will improve as they always do, but in the interim this ain't all bad
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Agent 12:55PM (10/30/2006)
Richard Warren: For future reference can you please cite your sources with a URL. Specifically the GAO report regarding 71% foreign corporations not paying taxes. They are all available online. Thanks.
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jeffinToronto 12:05PM (10/30/2006)
I also forgot to put in my previous post, that by in large, these are all publicly traded companies. So their headoffices or origin may be in a different country, but anyone can own them. So I can own a piece of Ford Canada or GM (US) or BMW etc. Guys like Ramsport47 really have no idea about "global" car companies and continue to think on overly simplistic terms when they complain about companies like Toyota.
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