Autoblog

Toyota USA gains increased design control

Jeff Glucker — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:01:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Toyota

2011 Toyota Tundra - Click above for high-res image gallery

The product development cycle at Toyota can be frustrating. More specifically, the process can be frustrating for North American executives who don't have total control over vehicles specifically marketed to their country. Engineers, developers and executives all have a say, but the final decisions have been made in Japan. Until now.

According to a report from Automotive News, Toyota has changed its product development process for North American vehicles. An example of such a vehicle is the Toyota Tundra. That pickup caters to the desires and needs of the U.S. car-buying public, and now Toyota USA will be given the leeway needed to make sure it meets those desires and needs.

The Japanese automaker says it has always listened to its U.S. counterparts. However, the process was stifled due to the requirement that decisions be finalized in Japan. Now, this process can flow more freely. Expect to see the effects of this change beginning with the next generation of the Tundra.

Toyota USA gains increased design control originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota may miss sales goal this year

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Trends, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

Toyota's bet that it could sell more vehicles in 2008 than in 2007 may not have been a wise one. Though Toyota's hybrid models and small cars are selling very well in the U.S., sales of pickups and SUVs have truly tanked, and Toyota had been counting on those sales just as much as its competitors. Of course, the giant automaker from Japan couldn't have known that far in advance just how high gasoline prices would go or the impact that it would have on auto sales and the economy in the United States in general. Booming markets like China have apparently not been able to make up for the shrinking pot in the States.

Even with the acknowledgment that meeting its target of selling more than the 2.62 million vehicles the company sold last year in the U.S. would be "difficult," Toyota's place in the automotive landscape is surely envied by the Detroit 3. After all, even with its sales revised downward, Toyota remains profitable, something which cannot be said of the U.S. automakers.

[Source: AP]

Toyota may miss sales goal this year originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Toyota to build Highlanders in Mississippi

Chris Tutor — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:03:00 EST

Filed under: SUV, Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota

As expected, Toyota officially announced its plans to build the Highlander in northeast Mississippi. The company will invest $1.8 billion in the project and initially employ 2,000 workers. Toyota officials, along with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (speaking in photo), made the announcement this morning at a press conference in Tupelo, Miss.

"We in Mississippi and especially north Mississippi are excited to have been chosen by Toyota as its partner," Barbour said at the conference. "Toyota is the world's premiere auto manufacturer and our state will be the best partner the company has."

Plans are for the plant to be up and running by 2009, producing as many as 150,000 gasoline-powered 2010 model Highlanders a year. Hybrid Highlander production will remain in Japan. With an incentive package somewhat smaller than the state offered Nissan in 2003, Toyota will acquire the entire 1,500 acre site that straddles three counties.

[Sources: The Clarion-Ledger, The Commercial Appeal, Sean P. Thompson]

Continue reading Official: Toyota to build Highlanders in Mississippi

Official: Toyota to build Highlanders in Mississippi originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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