( ), commonly known simply as Toyota, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan
, and the world's largest automaker by sales. Toyota employs approximately 320,808 people worldwide.
The company was founded by
Kiichiro
Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from
his
father's company
Toyota
Industries to create
automobiles.
Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of
Toyota Industries, it created its first
product, the
Type A engine,
and, in 1936, its first passenger car, the
Toyota AA.
Toyota also owns and operates Lexus and Scion
brands and has a majority shareholding stake in Daihatsu and Hino Motors
, and minority shareholdings in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, Yamaha
Motors, and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. The company
includes 522
subsidiaries.
Toyota is
headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi
and in
Tokyo
. In addition to manufacturing automobiles,
Toyota provides
financial
services through its
division Toyota Financial Services and also
builds robots. Toyota Motor Corporation (including Toyota Financial
Services) and Toyota Industries form the bulk of the
Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates
in the world.
On May 8, 2009, Toyota reported a record annual net loss of US$4.4
billion, making it the latest automobile maker to be severely
affected by the 2007-2009
financial
crisis.
Name
Toyota headquarters in Toyota City, Japan
Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (トヨダ), from
the family name of the company's founder,
Kiichiro Toyoda. In September 1936, the
company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Out of
27,000 entries the winning entry was the three Japanese
katakana letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. But
Risaburo Toyoda, who had married
into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota"
( ) because it took eight brush strokes (a fortuitous number) to
write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off two ticks at
the end) and with a voiceless consonant instead of a voiced one
(voiced consonant is considered "murky" or "muddy" sound compared
to the voiceless consonant, which is "clear"). Since "Toyoda"
literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also
helped to distance the company from associations with old-fashioned
farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was
registered in August 1937 as the "Toyota Motor Company".
In
predominantly Chinese speaking countries using traditional Chinese
characters, e.g., Hong Kong
and Taiwan
, Toyota is
known as "豐田". In predominantly Chinese speaking countries
using simplified Chinese
characters (eg China
), Toyota is
known as "丰田" (pronounced as "Fēngtián" in the Mandarin Chinese dialect). These are
the same characters as the founding family's name "Toyoda" in
Japanese, which translate to "fertile rice paddies" in the Chinese
language as well.
From September 1947, Toyota's small-sized vehicles were sold under
the name "Toyopet" (トヨペット). The first vehicle sold under this name
was the
Toyopet SA but it also included
vehicles such as the
Toyopet SB light
truck,
Toyopet Stout light truck,
Toyopet Crown and the
Toyopet Corona. However, when Toyota
eventually entered the American market in 1957 with the Crown, the
name was not well received due to connotations of toys and pets.
The name was soon dropped for the American market but continued in
other markets until the mid 1960s.
History
Toyota started in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works
devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the
founder's son,
Kiichiro Toyoda. Its
first vehicles were the
A1 passenger car
and the
G1 in 1935. Toyota Motor Co. was
established as an independent company in 1937.
Company overview
The Toyota Motor Company received its first Japanese Quality
Control Award at the start of the 1980s and began participating in
a wide variety of
motorsport. Due
to the
1973 oil crisis, consumers in
the lucrative U.S. market began turning to small cars with better
fuel economy. American car manufacturers had considered small
economy cars to be an "entry level" product, and their small
vehicles employed a low level of quality in order to keep the price
low.
By the early sixties, the US had begun placing stiff import tariffs
on certain vehicles. The
Chicken tax of
1964 placed a 25% tax on imported commercials vans. In response to
the tariff, Toyota,
Nissan Motor Co.
and
Honda Motor Co. began building plants in
the U.S. by the early eighties.
In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged
into one company, the Toyota Motor Corporation.
Two years later,
Toyota entered into a joint venture with GM called NUMMI
, the New
United Motor Manufacturing, Inc, operating an
automobile-manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. The
factory was an old General Motors plant that had been closed for
two years. Toyota then started to establish new brands at the end
of the 1980s, with the launch of their luxury division
Lexus in 1989.
In the 1990s, Toyota began to branch out from producing mostly
compact cars by adding many larger and more luxurious vehicles to
its lineup, including a full-sized pickup, the
T100 (and later the
Tundra); several lines of SUVs; a sport
version of the
Camry, known as the
Camry Solara; and the
Scion brand, a group of several affordable, yet
sporty, automobiles targeted specifically to young adults. Toyota
also began production of the world's best-selling hybrid car, the
Prius, in 1997.
With a major presence in Europe, due to the success of
Toyota Team Europe, the corporation
decided to set up
TMME,
Toyota Motor Europe Marketing & Engineering, to help
market vehicles in the continent.
Two years later, Toyota set up a base in
the United
Kingdom
, TMUK, as the
company's cars had become very popular among British
drivers. Bases in Indiana
, Virginia
and Tianjin
were also
set up. In 1999, the company decided to list itself
on the New
York
and London Stock
Exchange.

Toyota Deutschland's headquarters in
Cologne
In 2001, Toyota's
Toyo Trust and
Banking merged to form the
UFJ,
United
Financials of Japan, which was accused of corruption by the
Japan's government for making bad loans to alleged
Yakuza crime syndicates with executives accused of
blocking Financial Service Agency inspections. The UFJ was listed
among
Fortune Magazine's largest money-losing corporations
in the world, with Toyota's chairman serving as a director. At the
time, the UFJ was one of the largest shareholders of Toyota. As a
result of Japan's banking crisis, the UFJ was merged again to
become
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Group.
In 2002,
Toyota managed to enter a Formula One
works team and establish joint ventures with French
motoring
companies Citroën and Peugeot, a year after Toyota started producing cars
in France.
Toyota ranked eighth on Forbes 2000 list of the world's leading
companies for the year 2005. The company was number one in global
automobile sales for the first quarter of 2008.
On December 7, 2004, a U.S. press release was issued stating that
Toyota would be offering
Sirius
Satellite Radios. However, as late as January 27, 2007,
Sirius Satellite Radio and
XM Satellite radio kits were not available for
Toyota factory radios. While the press release enumerated nine
models, only limited availability existed at the dealer level in
the U.S. As of 2008, all Toyota and Scion models have either
standard or available XM radio kits. Major Lexus dealerships have
been offering satellite radio kits for Lexus vehicles since 2005,
in addition to factory-equipped satellite radio models.
In 2007, Toyota released an update of its full size truck, the
Tundra, produced in two American
factories, one in Texas and one in Indiana. "Motor Trend" named the
Tundra "Truck of the Year," and the 2007
Toyota Camry "Car of the Year" for 2007. It
also began the construction of two new factories, one to build the
RAV4 in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada and
the other to build the
Toyota Prius in
Blue Springs, Mississippi, USA. This plant was originally intended
to build the
Toyota Highlander,
but Toyota decided to use the plant in
Princeton, Indiana, USA
instead. The company has also found recent success with its smaller
models - the Corolla and Yaris - as gas prices have risen rapidly
in the last few years.
Logo and Branding

The 1936 Toyota Model AA, with the
original Toyoda logo
In 1936, in anticipation for the launch for the Model AA, which was
Toyota's first passenger car, Toyoda held a public competition to
establish a new symbol mark to promote its vehicles. The company
indicated that the new design should convey the feeling of speed.
Twenty-seven thousand entrants answered the call and submitted
their ideas to Toyoda. The winning design led to a change in the
name of the automobiles and plants from "Toyoda" to "Toyota." The
name change made the Japanese lettering more streamlined and was
also chosen because the number of strokes to write Toyota in
Japanese (eight) was thought to bring luck and prosperity. The
sound of the word "Toyota" was also deemed more appealing. The
Model AA was subsequently launched with the new logo. While the
logo is no longer used on any product the mark is still used today
as the corporate emblem of Toyota Motor Corporation and can be seen
on their Headquarters in Aichi.
As the company expanded in the decades ahead, Toyota sought ways to
consolidate the brand and raise international brand awareness.
Although the mark "TOYOTA," in roman type, was in wide use, the
lack of branding guidelines meant interpretation differed from
country to country, resulting in an inconsistent global
message.

MEGAWEB, Toyota's permanent exhibition
showroom and museum in Odaiba, Tokyo
Toyota's current logo used on its vehicles was introduced in 1989,
to differentiate the Toyota brand from the newly launched Lexus
brand. The Toyota Mark consists of three ovals: the two
perpendicular center ovals represent a relationship of mutual trust
between the customer and Toyota. These ovals combine to symbolize
the letter "T" for Toyota. The space in the background implies a
global expansion of Toyota's technology and unlimited potential for
the future. The logo appears with the "TOYOTA" letter type that had
been in use before.
The logo started appearing on all printed material, advertisements,
and dealer signage starting in 1990 and on the cars themselves in
1991.
Toyota philosophy
Toyota's management philosophy has evolved from the company's
origins and has been reflected in the terms "
Lean Manufacturing" and
Just In Time Production, which it
was instrumental in developing. The Toyota Way has four components:
- Long-term thinking as a basis for management decisions.
- A process for problem-solving.
- Adding value to the organization by developing its people.
- Recognizing that continuously solving root problems drives
organizational learning.
The Toyota Way incorporates the
Toyota Production System.
Toyota Production System
Toyota has long been recognized as an industry leader in
manufacturing and production. Three stories of its origin have been
found, one that they studied
Piggly-Wiggly's just-in-time distribution system,
one that they followed the writings of
W. Edwards
Deming, and one that they were given the principles from an
Army training program. It is possible that all are true. Regardless
of the origin, the principles, described in Toyota's management
philosophy,
The Toyota Way, are as
follows:
- Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even
at the expense of short-term goals
- Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the
surface
- Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction
- Level out the workload
- Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality
right the first time
- Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous
improvement and employee empowerment
- Use visual control so no problems are hidden
- Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves
your people and processes
- Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the
philosophy, and teach it to others
- Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s
philosophy
- Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by
challenging them and helping them improve
- Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation
(genchi genbutsu)
- Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all
options; implement decisions rapidly
- Become a learning organization through relentless reflection
and continuous improvement
Operations
Toyota Pavilion at the Expo in Aichi
Toyota has grown to a large multinational corporation from where it
started and expanded to different worldwide markets and countries.
It displaced GM and became the world's largest automaker for the
year 2008. It held the title of the most profitable automaker ($11
billion in 2006) along with increasing sales in, among other
countries, the United States. The world
headquarters of Toyota are located in its home
country in
Toyota, Aichi, Japan. Its
subsidiary,
Toyota Financial
Services sells financing and participates in other lines of
business. Toyota brands include
Scion
and
Lexus and the corporation is part of the
Toyota Group. Toyota also owns majority
stakes in
Daihatsu, and 16.7% of
Fuji Heavy Industries, which
manufactures
Subaru vehicles. They also
acquired 5.9% of
Isuzu Motors Ltd. on November
7, 2006 and will be introducing Isuzu diesel technology into their
products.
Toyota has introduced new technologies including one of the first
mass-produced
hybrid
gas-electric vehicles, of which it says it has sold 1 million
globally (2007-06-07),
Advanced Parking Guidance
System (automatic parking), a four-speed electronically
controlled automatic with buttons for power and economy shifting,
and an eight-speed automatic transmission. Toyota, and
Toyota-produced
Lexus and
Scion automobiles, consistently rank near the
top in certain
quality and
reliability surveys, primarily J.D. Power and
Consumer Reports.
In 2005, Toyota, combined with its half-owned subsidiary
Daihatsu Motor Company, produced 8.54
million vehicles, about 500,000 fewer than the number produced by
GM that year.
Toyota has a large market share in the
United
States
, but a small market share in Europe. Its
also sells vehicles in Africa and is a market leader in Australia.
Due to its
Daihatsu subsidiary it has
significant market shares in several fast-growing
Southeast Asian countries.
According to the 2008
Fortune Global
500, Toyota Motor is the fifth largest company in the world.
Since the recession of 2001, it has gained market share in the
United States. Toyota's market share struggles in Europe where its
Lexus brand has three tenths of one percent market share, compared
to nearly two percent market share as the U.S. luxury segment
leader.
In the first three months of 2007, Toyota together with its
half-owned subsidiary
Daihatsu reported
number one sales of 2.348 million units. Toyota's brand sales had
risen 9.2% largely on demand for Corolla and Camry sedans. The
difference in performance was largely attributed to surging demand
for fuel-efficient vehicles.
In November 2006, Toyota Motor Manufacturing
Texas added a facility in San Antonio
. Toyota has experienced quality problems and
was reprimanded by the government in Japan for its recall
practices. Toyota currently maintains over 16% of the US market
share and is listed second only to GM in terms of volume.
Toyota Century is the
official state car of the
Japanese imperial family, namely
for the
Emperor of Japan Akihito.
Toyota was hit by the
global financial crisis of
2008 as it was forced in December 2008 to forecast its first
annual loss in 70 years.In January 2009 it announced the closure of
all of its Japanese plants for 11 days to reduce output and stocks
of unsold vehicles.
Early in 2009, media sources reported that
Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, will be
promoted in June from vice-president to the position of President,
replacing Katsuaki Watanabe. Akio Toyoda became the new president
and CEO of the company on June 23, 2009 by replacing Katsuaki
Watanabe who became the new
vice
chairman by replacing
Katsuhiro
Nakagawa.
Worldwide presence
Toyota
has
factories in most parts of the world, manufacturing or
assembling vehicles for local markets.
Toyota has
manufacturing or assembly plants in Japan
, Australia, India
, Canada
, Indonesia
, Poland
, South Africa, Turkey
, Colombia
, the United Kingdom
, the United States
, UAE
, France
, Brazil
, Portugal
, and more recently, Argentina
, Czech
Republic
, Mexico
, Malaysia
, Thailand
, Egypt
, China
, Vietnam
, Venezuela
, the Philippines
, and Russia
.
In 2002, Toyota initiated the "Innovative International
Multi-purpose vehicle" project (IMV) to optimize global
manufacturing and supply systems for pickup trucks and multipurpose
vehicles, and to satisfy market demand in more than 140 countries
worldwide. IMV called for
diesel
engines to be made in Thailand,
gasoline engines in Indonesia and
manual transmissions in the Philippines,
for supply to the countries charged with vehicle production. For
vehicle assembly, Toyota would use plants in Thailand, Indonesia,
Argentina, South Africa and Pakistan. These four main IMV
production and export bases supply Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania,
Latin America and the Middle East with three IMV vehicles: The
Toyota Hilux , the
Fortuner, and the
Toyota Innova.
Toyota has invested heavily in vehicles with lower emissions, for
example the
Prius, based on technology
such as the
Hybrid Synergy
Drive. In 2002, Toyota successfully road-tested a new version
of the RAV4 which was powered by a Hydrogen
fuel cell.
Scientific American called the
company its
Business Brainwave of the Year in 2003 for
commercializing an affordable
hybrid
car.
Toyota North America
Toyota Motor North America
headquarters is located in New York City
and operates at a holding company level in North
America. Its manufacturing headquarters is located in
Hebron, Kentucky, and is known as Toyota Motor Engineering and
Manufacturing North America, or TEMA.
Toyota Canada Inc. has been in
production in Canada since 1983 with an aluminium wheel plant in
Delta, British Columbia
which currently employs a workforce of roughly 260.
Its first vehicle
assembly plant, in Cambridge, Ontario
since 1988, now produces Corolla compact cars, Matrix crossover vehicles and Lexus RX 350 luxury SUVs, with a workforce of
4,300 workers. Its second assembly operation in Woodstock,
Ontario
began manufacturing the RAV4 late in 2008. In 2006, Toyota's
subsidiary Hino
Motors
opened a heavy duty truck plant, also in Woodstock,
employing 45 people and producing 2000 trucks
annually.

A Toyota dealership in California,
U.S.A.
Toyota
has a large presence in the United States
with five major assembly plants in Huntsville,
Alabama
; Georgetown, Kentucky
; Princeton, Indiana
; San Antonio, Texas
; Buffalo, West Virginia
. A new plant slated to be built in Blue
Springs, Mississippi
has been put on hold owing to the financial crisis
that erupted in late 2008. Toyota had a joint-venture operation with
General Motors at New United
Motor Manufacturing Inc.
(NUMMI),
in Fremont,
California
, which began in 1984 and ended in 2009. It
still has a joint-venture with Subaru at
Subaru of Indiana Automotive,
Inc. (SIA), in Lafayette, Indiana
, which started in 2006. Production on a new
manufacturing plant in Tupelo, Mississippi
was scheduled for completion in 2010 but is
currently on indefinite hold. North America is a major
automobile market for Toyota. In these assembly plants, the
Camry and the
Tundra are manufactured, among others.
Toyota marketing, sales, and distribution in the U.S. are conducted
through a separate subsidiary,
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.,
Inc. Toyota uses a number of
slogans in
its American TV
commercials
such as
It's time to move forward, Smart way to keep
moving forward, or
Moving forward. It has started
producing larger
trucks, such as the new
Tundra, to go after the large truck market in the United States.
Toyota is also pushing
hybrid vehicles in the US such as
the
Prius, Camry Hybrid, Highlander
Hybrid, and various
Lexus products.
Toyota has sold more hybrid vehicles in the country than any other
manufacturer.
Toyota is a public corporation and the company's
shares are traded on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange
and the London
Stock Exchange. Toyota also sponsors
Club Deportivo Guadalajara.
Electric Technology
Toyota is one of the largest companies to push
hybrid vehicles in the market and
the first to commercially mass-produce and sell such vehicles, an
example being the
Toyota Prius. The
company eventually began providing this option on the main smaller
cars such as Camry and later with the
Lexus
divisions, producing some hybrid luxury vehicles. It labeled such
technology in Toyota cars as "
Hybrid Synergy
Drive" and in Lexus versions as "
Lexus Hybrid
Drive."
The
Prius has become the top selling hybrid
car in America
. Toyota, as a brand, now has three hybrid
vehicles in its lineup: the Prius, Highlander, and
Camry. The popular minivan Toyota Sienna
is scheduled to join the hybrid lineup by 2010, and by 2030 Toyota
plans to offer its entire lineup of cars, trucks, and SUVs with a
Hybrid Synergy Drive option.
Worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles produced by Toyota reached 1.0
million vehicles by May 31, 2007, and the 2.0 million mark was
reached by August 31, 2009, with hybrids sold in 50 countries.
Toyota's hybrid sales are led by the Prius, with worldwide
cumulative sales of 1.43 million by Augut 2009. Toyota's CEO has
committed to eventually making every car of the company a hybrid
vehicle.
Lexus also has their own hybrid lineup,
consisting of the
GS 450h,
RX 400h, and launched in 2007, the
LS 600h/LS 600h L.
Toyota has said it plans to make a hybrid-electric system available
on every vehicle it sells worldwide sometime in the 2010s.
Toyota and Honda have already said they've halved the incremental
cost of electric hybrids and see cost parity in the future (even
without incentives).
Hybrids are viewed by some
automakers as a
core segment of the future vehicle market.
Plug-in hybrids

Plug-in Prius concept
After
General Motors announced it
would produce the Chevrolet Volt
plug-in
hybrid, Toyota announced that it, too, would make one. Toyota
is currently testing its "Toyota Plug-in HV" in Japan, the United
States, and Europe. Like GM's Volt, it uses a
lithium-ion battery pack. The PHEV
(plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) could have a lower environmental
impact than existing hybrids.
On June 5, 2008,
A123Systems announced
that its
Hymotion plug-in hybrid conversion
kits for the Prius would be installed by six dealers, including
four Toyota dealerships: Westboro Toyota in Boston, Fitzgerald
Toyota in Washington D.C., Toyota of Hollywood in Los Angeles, and
the Minneapolis-based Denny Hecker Automotive Group, which sells
multiple brands.
All-electric vehicles
Toyota is speeding up the development of vehicles that run only on
electricity with the aim of mass-producing them in the early part
of next decade. Road tests for the current prototype, called
"e-com", had ended in 2006.
Pickup Trucks

2007 Tundra Double Cab
The
Tundra is a full-size pickup truck
sold by Toyota that originally went into production in 1999 for the
2000 US model year. Currently, the Tundra has been on the market
for more than half a decade, and has captured 16 percent of the
full-size half-ton market in the US.
The all new Tundra is assembled in two different locations, both
inside the United States.
The Standard and Double Cabs are assembled
in San Antonio,
Texas
, while the Crew Max is assembled in Mooreland,
Indiana
. Toyota Motor Corporation assembled around
150,000 Standard and Double Cabs, and only 70,000 Crew Max's in
2007. As of November 2008 the San Antonio Plant will be the only
one producing Tundra Trucks. exported to the Latin American
In addition to the Tundra, Toyota also produces the
Tacoma, with a smaller body and smaller engine
than its bigger brother.
Outside the United States, Toyota produces the
Hilux in Standard and double cab, gasoline and
diesel engine, 2WD and 4WD versions.The BBC's Top Gear TV show
featured 2 episodes of a Hilux that was virtually
indestructible.
Motorsport
Toyota is active in the
motorsports and
sponsors such events through their cars among others.
TRD
Toyota Racing Development
was brought about to help develop true high performance racing
parts for many Toyota vehicles. TRD has often had much success with
their after market tuning parts, as well as designing technology
for vehicles used in all forms of racing.
Non-automotive activities
Aerospace
Toyota is a minority share holder in Mitsubishi Aircraft
Corporation, having invested US$67.2 million in the new venture
which will produce the
Mitsubishi Regional Jet, slated for
first deliveries in 2013.
Toyota has also studied participation in the
general aviation market, and
contracted with Scaled
Composites
to produce a proof-of-concept aircraft, the
TAA-1 in 2002.
Philanthropy

The Toyota Municipal Museum of Art in
Aichi, sponsored by the manufacturer
Toyota is
supporter of the Toyota
Family Literacy Programme along with National Center for Family
Literacy, helping low-income community members for education,
United Negro College Fund
(40 annual scholarships), National Underground Railroad Freedom
Center
($1 million) among others. Toyota created
the
Toyota USA
Foundation.
Higher education
Toyota established the
Toyota Technological
Institute in 1981, as Sakichi Toyoda had planned to establish a
university as soon as he and Toyota became successful. Toyota
Technological Institute founded the
Toyota Technological
Institute at Chicago in 2003. Toyota is supporter of the
"Toyota Driving Expectations Program," "Toyota Youth for
Understanding Summer Exchange Scholarship Program," "Toyota
International Teacher Program," "Toyota TAPESTRY," "Toyota
Community Scholars" (scholarship for high school students), "United
States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Internship Program," and
"Toyota Funded Scholarship."
It has contributed to a number of local
education and scholarship programs for the University
of Kentucky
, Indiana
, and others.
Robotics

Toyota trumpet playing robot
In 2004, Toyota showcased its trumpet playing robot. Toyota has
been developing multitask robots destined for
elderly care, manufacturing, and entertainment.
A specific example of Toyota's involvement in robotics for the
elderly is the Brain Machine Interface. Designed for use with
wheelchairs, it "allows a person to control an electric wheelchair
accurately, almost in real-time" with their mind. The thought
controls allow the wheelchair to go left, right and forward with a
delay between thought and movement of just 125 milliseconds.
Finance
Toyota
Financial Services
Corporation provides financing to Toyota customers.
Agricultural biotechnology
Toyota invests in several small start-up businesses and
partnerships in
biotechnology,
including:
Financial information
Toyota is publicly traded on the
Tokyo,
Osaka,
Nagoya,
Fukuoka, and
Sapporo exchanges under company code
.
In
addition, Toyota is foreign-listed on the New York
Stock Exchange
under and on the London Stock Exchange under .
Toyota has been publicly traded in Japan since 1949 and
internationally since 1999.
As reported on its consolidated financial statements, Toyota has
540 consolidated subsidiaries and 226 affiliates.
Government bailouts
Toyota's financial unit has asked for an emergency loan from a
state-backed lender on March 16, 2009, with reports putting the
figure at more than $3 billion. It says the international financial
situation is squeezing its business, forcing it to ask for an
emergency loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
It is the first time the state-backed bank has been asked to lend
to a Japanese car manufacturer.
Production and sales numbers

Typical breakdown of sales by
region
| Calendar Year |
Total |
Japan |
United States |
| Prod'n |
Sales |
Prod'n |
Sales |
Sales |
| 1935 |
|
|
20 |
|
|
| 1936 |
|
|
1,142 |
|
|
| 1937 |
|
|
4,013 |
|
|
| 1938 |
|
|
4,615 |
|
|
| 1939 |
|
|
11,981 |
|
|
| 1940 |
|
|
14,787 |
|
|
| 1941 |
|
|
14,611 |
|
|
| 1942 |
|
|
16,302 |
|
|
| 1943 |
|
|
9,827 |
|
|
| 1944 |
|
|
12,720 |
|
|
| 1945 |
|
|
3,275 |
|
|
| 1946 |
|
|
5,821 |
|
|
| 1947 |
|
|
3,922 |
|
|
| 1948 |
|
|
6,703 |
|
|
| 1949 |
|
|
10,824 |
|
|
| 1950 |
|
|
11,706 |
|
|
| 1951 |
|
|
14,228 |
|
|
| 1952 |
|
|
42,106 |
|
|
| 1953 |
|
|
16,496 |
|
|
| 1954 |
|
|
22,713 |
|
|
| 1955 |
|
|
22,786 |
|
|
| 1956 |
|
|
46,716 |
|
|
| 1957 |
|
|
79,527 |
|
|
| 1958 |
|
|
78,856 |
|
|
| 1959 |
|
|
101,194 |
|
|
| 1960 |
|
|
154,770 |
|
|
| 1961 |
|
|
210,937 |
|
|
| 1962 |
|
|
230,350 |
|
|
| 1963 |
|
|
318,495 |
|
|
| 1964 |
|
|
425,764 |
|
|
| 1965 |
|
|
477,643 |
|
|
| 1966 |
|
|
587,539 |
|
|
| 1967 |
|
|
832,130 |
|
|
| 1968 |
|
|
1,097,405 |
|
|
| 1969 |
|
|
1,471,211 |
|
|
| 1970 |
|
|
1,609,190 |
|
|
| 1971 |
|
|
1,955,033 |
|
|
| 1972 |
|
|
2,087,133 |
|
|
| 1973 |
|
|
2,308,098 |
|
|
| 1974 |
|
|
2,114,980 |
|
|
| 1975 |
|
|
2,336,053 |
|
|
| 1976 |
|
|
2,487,851 |
|
|
| 1977 |
|
|
2,720,758 |
|
|
| 1978 |
|
|
2,929,157 |
|
|
| 1979 |
|
|
2,996,225 |
|
|
| 1980 |
|
|
3,293,344 |
|
|
| 1981 |
|
|
3,220,418 |
|
|
| 1982 |
|
|
3,144,557 |
|
|
| 1983 |
|
|
3,272,335 |
|
|
| 1984 |
|
|
3,429,249 |
|
|
| 1985 |
|
|
3,665,622 |
|
|
| 1986 |
|
|
3,660,167 |
|
|
| 1987 |
|
|
3,638,279 |
|
|
| 1988 |
|
|
3,956,697 |
2,120,273 |
|
| 1989 |
|
|
3,975,902 |
2,308,863 |
|
| 1990 |
|
|
4,212,373 |
2,504,291 |
|
| 1991 |
|
|
4,085,071 |
2,355,356 |
|
| 1992 |
|
|
3,931,341 |
2,228,941 |
|
| 1993 |
|
|
3,561,750 |
2,057,848 |
|
| 1994 |
|
|
3,508,456 |
2,031,064 |
|
| 1995 |
|
|
3,171,277 |
2,060,125 |
|
| 1996 |
|
|
3,410,060 |
2,135,276 |
|
| 1997 |
|
|
3,502,046 |
2,005,949 |
|
| 1998 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 1999 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2000 |
|
|
|
|
1,619,206 |
| 2001 |
|
|
|
|
1,741,254 |
| 2002 |
|
|
|
|
1,756,127 |
| 2003 |
|
|
|
|
1,866,314 |
| 2004 |
|
|
|
|
2,060,049 |
| 2005 |
|
|
|
|
2,260,296 |
| 2006 |
|
|
|
|
2,542,524 |
| 2007 |
8,180,000 |
8,524,000 |
5,100,000 |
2,273,000 |
2,620,825 |
| 2008 |
8,547,000 |
8,913,000 |
5,160,000 |
2,188,000 |
2,217,662 |
Japan production numbers 1937 to 1987.
Outcomes
Toyota is now the world’s largest automaker in terms of sales, net
worth, revenue, and profits. According to Stephen Spier, Toyota has
been an industry leader since the 1960s and has consistently been
more productive than its competitors. The company has been widely
recognized for the quality of its products and production
systems.
Environmental record
The Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) implemented its Fourth
Environmental Action Plan in 2005. The plan contains four major
themes involving the environment and the corporation's development,
design, production, and sales. The five-year plan is directed at
the, "arrival of a revitalized recycling-based society." Toyota had
previously released its Eco-Vehicle Assessment System (Eco-VAS)
which is a systematic
life cycle
assessment of the effect a vehicle will have on the environment
including production, usage, and disposal. The assessment includes,
"... fuel efficiency, emissions and noise during vehicle use, the
disposal recovery rate, the reduction of substances of
environmental concern, and
CO2
emissions throughout the life cycle of the vehicle from
production to disposal." 2008 marks the ninth year for Toyota's
Environmental Activities Grant Program which has been implemented
every year since 2000. Themes of the 2008 program consist of
"Global Warming Countermeasures" and "Biodiversity
Conservation."
Since October 2006, Toyota's new Japanese-market vehicle models
with automatic transmissions are equipped with an Eco Drive
Indicator. The system takes into consideration rate of
acceleration, engine and transmission efficiency, and speed. When
the vehicle is operated in a fuel-efficient manner, the Eco Drive
Indicator on the instrument panel lights up. Individual results
vary depending on traffic issues, starting and stopping the
vehicle, and total distance traveled, but the Eco Drive Indicator
may improve fuel efficiency by as much as 4%. Along with Toyota's
eco-friendly objectives on production and use, the company plans to
donate $1 million and five vehicles to the Everglades National
Park. The money will be used to fund environmental programs at the
park. This donation is part of a program which provides $5 million
and 23 vehicles for five national parks and the National Parks
Foundation. However new figures from the
United States National
Research Council show that the continuing hidden
health costs of the auto industry to the US economy
in 2005 amounted to 56 million US dollars.
The United States EPA has awarded Toyota Motor Engineering &
Manufacturing North America, Inc (TEMA) with a ENERGY STAR
Sustained Excellence Award in 2007, 2008 and 2009
In 2007, Toyota's
Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) fleet average of exceeded all other major
manufactures selling cars within the United States. Only
Lotus Cars which sold the
Elise and
Exige
powered by Toyota's
2ZZ-GE
engine did better with an average of .
See also
References
External links