Just because Toyota is still spending on Formula 1 and the Lexus LF-A doesn’t mean its not cinching up the fiscal belts — scaling back at the Detroit Auto Show, killing Australia’s TRD division, and delaying a highly anticipated sports car. And now you can add stopping construction on new factories to that list.
Toyota has a Camry assembly plant in St. Petersburg, Russia where it expected to build 20,000 cars in its first year. The plant didn’t make its quota, so a proposed expansion of the facility to begin in 2010 has been put on hold.
In Thailand, Toyota intended to build a diesel engine plant this summer. The $155 million factory would have gone online in 2010 and made powerplants for Toyota pickups. That plan has also been scrapped for the time being.
[Source:Bloomberg]