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, or simply called Toyota, is a Japanese multinational corporation and the world's second largest automaker that manufactures automobiles, trucks, buses, and robots. The company's headquarters are in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. The company was founded in 1933 by Kiichiro Toyoda. Since then, Toyota has become one of the most successful and profitable Japanese companies and one of the world's most industry leading automobile corporations such as introducing the industry's first commercially available Advanced Parking Guidance System (automatic parking), eight-speed automatic transmission, real-time traffic quidance with dynamic rerouting, and four-zone climate control with infrared technology in its Lexus division models *. It's also one of few automobile corporations that extensively produced and pushed car based on the hybrid fuel technology in the market such as in the hybrid Scion, Toyota and even in the luxury Lexus division cars. According to current predictions, it is highly speculated that it will become the world's largest automaker, overtaking General Motors, by producing and selling 9.8 million vehicles in 2008 along with increasing sales. * It's one of the Japanese "big three" challenging American automobile manufacturers that includes Nissan Motors and Honda Motor with high success. Introduction The headquarters of Toyota is located in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. Toyota also provides financial services through its subsidiary, Toyota Financial Services, and participates in other lines of business. It manufactures vehicles sold in the United States under the brand names Toyota, Scion, and Lexus. Toyota also owns majority stakes in Daihatsu and Hino, and 8.7% of Fuji Heavy Industries, which manufactures Subaru vehicles. As of 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. In July 2006, Toyota passed Ford in selling cars, although Ford regained its lead over Toyota in the following month and lost it again due to heavy gas prices. Toyota has a large market share in the United States, Europe and Africa and is the market leader in Australia. It has significant market shares in several fast-growing Southeast Asian countries. In the Fortune Global 500, it is the 7th largest company in the world outpacing Ford Motor Company in all listings in terms of revenue and growth and in the 2006 Forbes Global 2000 it is the 12th largest company in the world. It has been consistently gaining market share in the United States, while shrinking sales for Ford and General Motors in the United States. Its slogan is "Moving forward" or "It's time to move forward" in the United States and various other countries in the world. In Europe their common slogan is "Today. Tomorrow. Toyota." In some countries such as Australia, the slogan is "Oh what a feeling!" which was Toyota's slogan in the US during the 1980s. History Toyota Motor Corporation began in September 1933 when Toyoda Automatic Loom created a new division devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Soon thereafter, the division produced its first Type A Engine in 1934, which was used in the first Model A1 passenger car in May 1935 and the G1 truck in August 1935. Production of the Model AA passenger car started in 1936. Although the Toyota Group is best known today for its cars, it is still in the textile business and still makes automatic looms (which are now fully computerized), and electric sewing machines which are available worldwide. Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in 1937. Although the founding family name is Toyoda (豊田), the company name was changed in order to signify the separation of the founders' work life from home life, to simplify the pronunciation, and to give the company a happy beginning. Toyota (トヨタ) is considered luckier than Toyoda (豊田) in Japan, where eight is regarded as a lucky number, and eight is the number of strokes it takes to write Toyota in Katakana. In Chinese, the company and its vehicles are still referred to by the equivalent characters (Traditional Chinese: 豐田; Simplified Chinese: 丰田), with Chinese reading. During the Pacific War the company was dedicated to truck production for the Imperial Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight on the center of the hood. The war ended shortly before a scheduled Allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi. Commercial passenger car production started in 1947 with the model SA. In 1950 a separate sales company Toyota Motor Sales Co. was established (which lasted until July 1982). In April 1956 the Toyopet dealer chain was established. Japans banking crisis In 2001, Toyota's Toyo Trust and Banking merged to form the UFJ United Financials of Japan, which was accused of corruption by the government for making bad loans to the Yakuza crime syndicates . The UFJ became one of the worst 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. Worldwide presence
Lexus Lexus is Toyota's brand name for its luxury vehicle division. Lexus vehicles are sold in North America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania; in the United States, Lexus is the highest-selling brand of luxury cars. Until 2005, Lexus vehicles were sold under the Toyota marque in Japan, at which point the Lexus marque was introduced. Since its debut in 1989, Lexus has developed a reputation for the reliability of its vehicles and the quality of its customer service. In 2006, consumer ratings firm J.D. Power named Lexus the most reliable brand in the U.S. based on its Vehicle Dependability Survey, a measure of over 47,000 vehicle owners and the problems they experienced in the first three years of vehicle ownership. It was the twelfth consecutive year that Lexus achieved this top rating . That same year, Consumer Reports also named Lexus the most reliable brand in its Annual Car Reliability Survey of over one million vehicles nationwide. . Additionally, Lexus ranks highly on surveys of dealership service experience. Scion Scion is a United States-only division of Toyota founded in 2003. It is also a brand of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. It currently has three models: the Scion xA also known as the Scion xA white and xB (both rebadged Japanese market cars, named ist and bB, respectively) and the tC (a new design based on the European-market Toyota Avensis). Scion's long-term goal is to appeal to Generation Y consumers, expected to dwarf the market size of Generation X by 2020. Scion grew from Toyota Project Genesis, a failed effort to bring younger buyers to the Toyota marque in the United States. Scion is Toyota's entry-level brand, slotting below Toyota in the lineup. Currently Scion sells its vehicles in the United States, and Guam and Puerto Rico. Current models
Historic models Toyota Brand Hybrids The Prius has become the top selling hybrid car in America. Toyota now has three hybrid vehicles in its lineup (Prius, Highlander, & Camry). The popular minivan Toyota Sienna is supposed to join the hybrid lineup by 2010, and by 2030 Toyota plans to have its entire lineup of cars, trucks, and SUVs to have a Hybrid Synergy Drive option. Lexus also has their own hybrid lineup, consisting of the GS450h and the RX400h. Manufacturing Facilities Australia 1972-1975: Origins Toyota's presence in Motorsport can be traced by to the early 1970s, when Swedish driver, Ove Andersson drove for Toyota during the RAC Rally of Great Britain. During the winter of 1972, Andersson formed Andersson Motorsport in his native country and began running a Rallying program for Toyota. The move turned out to be an inpratical one and three years after establishing his team, Andersson moved it's base from Sweden to Brussels in Belgium. From there the team was renamed, Team Toyota Europe. 1975-1994: Success in rallying Toyota's first win in motorsport came at the 1975 1000 Lakes Rally of Finland, when Hannu Mikkola and his co-driver, Atso Aho, won the event in a Toyota Corolla. Three years later, the team moved to a new base in Cologne, in western Germany. It wasn't until the 1980s when Toyota began to gain notable success, especially in the African rallies, where Bjorn Waldegaard and Juha Kankkunen. The team then set-up it's all purpose Motorsport facility in Cologne three years later, which is still used today. In 1990, Carlos Sainz gave Toyota it's first ever Championship win in a Four-wheel drive Toyota Celica and repeated the feat 2 years later. In 1993, Toyota bought the team from Andersson and named it Toyota Motorsport GmbH, in the same year Juha Kankkunen won the WRC title and Toyota won the Contructors' Championship, becoming the first Japanese Manufacturer to do so. This success was repeated a year earlier, but this time it was Frenchman Didier Auriol who was responsible. 1995-1996: Toyotas decline in rallying 1995 proved to be a difficult year for Toyota, as the team were caught using illegal turbo chargers and were given a 12-month ban by the FIA. The company returned to rallying in 1996, but it's competition, notably Subaru, had a clearer advantage over their cars and so Toyota were unable to re-establish their form during the early 1990s. 1996-2002: Championship Auto Racing Teams Toyota raced in CART from 1996 to 2002. It's early years in the series were marked by struggles. Toyota-powered cars, campaigned by the All-American Racers and PPI Motorsports teams, languished at the back of the grid, slow and unreliable. Toyota didn't even lead a lap until Alex Barron led 12 laps at the Vancouver street circuit in September 1998. Toyota started seeing its fortunes improve in 1999 as Scott Pruett took pole position at the final race of the season at the California Speedway. The next year, Juan Pablo Montoya gave Toyota its first-ever CART win at the Milwaukee Mile, the first of 5 races won by Toyota-powered cars that year. Toyota-powered cars won six races in 2001. In 2002, Toyota's final year in the championship, it turned things around completely from its bleak debut. Toyota won the Manufacturer's championship, 10 races, and Cristiano Da Matta rode Toyota power to the driver's championship, with Bruno Junqueira, also Toyota-powered car, finished second. 1997-1999: Le Mans 24 hours
2003-2005: Indy Racing League Toyota moved to the Indy Racing League in 2003 and provided factory support to former CART teams Penske Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing as well as other teams. They were one of the top engines in their first year, winning the Indianapolis 500 with Gil de Ferran and the championship with Scott Dixon. However, 2004 and 2005 were not so kind and wins were few and far between. Following the 2005 season, the Penske and Ganassi teams announced they would switch engines to Honda, leaving Toyota with no championship contenders. As a result of this and their intent to re-allocate resources for NASCAR, Toyota announced they would leave the series during the offseason. 2002-Present: Formula One Main article: Toyota F1 In 2002 Toyota started racing in Formula One with Toyota Team Europe, based in Cologne, Germany. Despite a huge investment, the team's performances have been considered average by fans and pundits alike. In 2004, designer Mike Gascoyne was hired, but left the team midway through the 2006 season); by 2005 the team had advanced from the midfield to challenging for the top positions. Jarno Trulli achieved two second places and one third place in the first five races of the season, helping the team to retain second position in the Constructors Championship for several races. Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher are the team's current drivers. For 2007, Toyota will be supplying two teams, those being the works Toyota team and the Williams team. 2007 onwards: NASCAR Toyota also races the Toyota Tundra in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Toyota will run over six teams in the Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series with the Camry in the start of the 2007 season. 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 aftermarket tuning parts, as well as designing technology for vehicles used in all forms of racing. Rugby team Toyota Verblitz is in Japan's Top League. Shareholders Toyota is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under number 7203 (first section). Also on NYSE under . Holdings Toyota reports on its consolidated financial statements 540 consolidated subsidiaries and 226 affiliates. Robot Toyota has been developing multitask robots destined for elderly care, manufacturing, and entertainment. 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: Name Toyota is also a city in Aichi, Japan, named after the corporation. The basketball and hockey arena in Houston, Texas, the Toyota Center, is also named after the company. A soccer stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, was named Toyota Park just before its opening in 2006. A football (soccer) stadium in Prague, Czech Republic, the Toyota Arena, also bears the company's name, as well as Toyota Park Rugby League Stadium, in Cronulla, New South Wales, Australia, home of the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks Rugby League Team. Toyota also sponsors the Nagoya Grampus Eight. The team also plays its home games at Toyota Stadium. The Los Angeles Kings' practice facility in El Segundo, California is named for Toyota (Toyota Sports Center). Toyota has been one of the Kings' major sponsors for about 20 years. Since 2004, Toyota has held the naming rights for the Australian Football League, and have sponsored the Adelaide Football Club since inception in 1991, through the Camry branding. Popular culture See also Robot Related Tuner clubs Data Legal matters | |||||||||||||
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