REPORT: Toyota puts hold on Russia, Thailand plant plans

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

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]

REPORT: Toyota puts hold on Russia, Thailand plant plans originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota Looks To Export Tundra, Sequoia; Says Big Girls Can’t Get No Love

Toyota Tundra Gets Dumped By North American Buyers

In response to large-vehicle sales reaching record lows in North America, Toyota announced tentative plans to begin exporting the Tundra pick-up truck and Sequoia SUV. Explaining Toyota’s plan [still in the preliminary stages of implementation], Steve St. Angelo, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, said that the large vehicle market overseas isn’t nearly as dismal, there could be a sizable niche for exported pick-ups and SUVs [see: military junta fleet sales].

According to Toyota reports, sales of the Toyota Tundra were down this past month 15.2% while the Toyota Sequoia enjoyed a momentary break from the trend with a 32.8% increase this month. After recording high inventories of both vehicles, however, on Friday, August 8th, Toyota began idling plants responsible for production while they attempt to navigate through the rocky economy. Production is scheduled to resume in mid-November, but the near future for the Tundra and the Sequoia on American soil is looking grim.

[Source: Automotive News]

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Reader Review of the Week

This week we get some real-life feedback from a new Toyota RAV4 owner who opted for the four-cylinder model. Since Cars.com recently tested the V-6 RAV4, this is a good way to hear from someone who opted for the less powerful version and find out why.

Lou B. from Fayetteville, Ark., gets the nod this week because of his real-life feedback of both the buying and driving experience. You can read and submit your own new- or used-car review any time.

"We — my wife and I — replaced our great 1997 Honda Accord with a 2007 RAV4 Limited, 2-wheel drive, 4 cylinder.

“We got our vehicle on 9/23/2006 and we love it. It is incredibly peppy, and our prime driving circumstances — small rural town — could hardly justify the V-6.

“It was necessary for us to special-order to get the colors and features we wanted. The wait was long, the cost was MSRP, but we did not get a load of dealer add-ons, either.

“Reliability, safety, looks and comfort were among the top priorities in selecting the RAV4 for the two of us still-active oldsters."

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The fact that Toyota have the number one spot does not necessarily mean ...

This has been coming for a while now, but figures for the first quarter of the year confirm Toyota as the number one car company in the world today.

Previously the spot had been held by US car giant General Motors, but as we have seen in the past few years the main car manufacturers GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler have been hit by many factors which are outside of the industry as such and could be said to beyond their direct control.

Toyota have been steadily building towards the top spot and with their decision to go with the green car (Prius) which has proved to be a absolute winner, yet there are those who say that it is not totally the car sales that have helped the company reach this accolade. Many industry insiders believe that because of the Japanese culture, the company has been able to exploit certain areas.

We have seen that benefits to staff in the US have been major headache for the big three, these being mainly health care and pension liabilities, which as whole amounts to a lot of money and thus has an effect on investment in new plants, design and so on, is this true or just an excuse, well it is true that we have heard how expensive employing people in the west is, and in Japan it is different, but we are talking about a global market, the big three do have plants in other countries as do virtually all vehicle makers, the costs and working conditions are favourable and therefore most of the manufacturers are playing on a level playing field.

The fact that Toyota have the number one spot does not necessarily mean that they will be holding on to it, in fact the number one spot will probably be seeing many different names over the years to come as the car companies develop a worldwide foothold, and in particular the Chinese market, where we have seen that the luxury end have been showing their cars, yet this market has an even bigger market for small to mid sized cars, this where the sales are going to change the status of all car manufacturers.

Source [Business Week]

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