In an open letter dated January 1, 2006, Toyota
President Katsuaki Watanabe expressed his wish for a happy new year to all and then dished on what Toyota’s
business plan for growth will be in the coming year.
The two major areas in which Toyota will be investing
its resources, according to the prez, are technology development and localization. Major amounts of R&D dollars
will be spent on technology development in the areas of the environment, safety, quality and costs. Watanabe bragged a
bit about Toyota’s current hybrid lineup and touched briefly on the hybrid version of the Lexus GS that will be
available this spring.
Toyota is moving ahead aggressively in its effort to localize its business in various
markets, as evident by the Tundra assembly plant in Texas, as well as the future birthplace of the Camry Hybrid in
Kentucky. North America isn’t the only country getting love from Toyota, however – the next Camry will also
be built locally in Guangzhou, China.
Will it all be enough to overtake the General in 2006? We’ll
check back with Watanabe next New Year’s to find out, assuming we can fish him out of the punch bowl. That guy can
party!