History
Sakichi Toyoda (1867-1930), the great industrial entrepreneur and national hero, was the Japanese equal of Thomas Edison. As recently as 1985, the patent office listed Sakichi Toyoda as one of the ten most important inventors in Japanese history. The textile machinery company that he founded eventually gave birth to the Toyota Motor Corporation.
Origins in Toyoda Automatic Loom —1936
The origins of the company are found as an automobile section of Toyoda Automatic Loom, implemented in September 1933. From an early age Sakichi Toyoda worked on improving looms. In 1891 he obtained his first patent for the Toyoda wooden hand loom. He went on to focus his efforts on the improvement and invention of looms, including a significant number of excellent motive and automatic machines.
In 1924, Toyoda invented the Type-G Toyoda automatic loom with non-stop shuttle change motion, the first of its kind in the world. The Type-G Toyoda automatic loom was a groundbreaking invention containing a number of features such as automatic thread replenishment without any drop in the weaving speed. Platt Brothers & Co., Ltd. of England, a world leader in the loom industry of the time, paid the 1929 equivalent of 1 million yen for transfer of the rights to the Type-G loom. Toyoda later used these funds as seed money to found Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.
As a result of Toyoda's inventions the quality of Japanese looms and textile products jumped to an internationally competitive level.
Quickly thereafter the section produced its first Type A Engine in 1934, used for the production of 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 company is most well known today for its cars, it is still in the textile business.
Establishment of Toyota Motor Co. and WWII 1936–1946
Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in 1937. Although the founding family name is Toyoda, the company name was changed to...
Signify the separation of the founders' work life from home life;
Simplify the pronunciation, and
Give the company an auspicious beginning. Toyota is considered luckier than Toyoda due to the fact that eight is a lucky number, and is the number of strokes it takes to write Toyota in Katakana.
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.
Fortunately for Toyota, the war ended shortly before a scheduled allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi.
Start of Commercial Production 1947-
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.
Today Toyota is one of the top car manufacturers with large market shares in both the US and Europe. It has a small car division, selling under the Daihatsu brand as well as a heavy vehicle division, selling under the Hino brand.
Toyota is Japan's biggest car company and second largest in the world (the largest being America's General Motors) having recently overtaken Ford Motor Company in sales. The company is immensely profitable, and its massive cash reserves dwarf those of many countries. Toyota's vehicles are generally highly regarded for their quality, proficient engineering, and value, but their designs are viewed as anonymous and lacking the flair of smaller manufacturers. Toyota offers one of the largest ranges of vehicles of any manufacturer and does, amongst its more predictable high-volume models, produce a number of exciting sports cars, particularly, the Celica, MR2 and Supra.
Worldwide Presence
Toyota has factories all over the world, manufacturing or assembling vehicles for local markets, including its most popular model, the Corolla. Toyota has manufacturing or assembly plants in the United States, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and France. Cars from these plants are often exported to other countries. For example, the South African-built Toyota Corolla is exported to Australia, while the Australian-built Camry is exported (in left hand drive) to countries in the Middle East. Between 1997 and 2000, the number one selling car in the U.S. was the Toyota Camry. It was dethroned in 2001 by the Honda Accord, only to regain its place in 2002, with the introduction of a redesigned model.
Toyota also produces a range of SUVs. Indeed, one of its first export markets was exporting its Landcruiser model to Australia in the late 1950s.
Toyota also contributes a great amount of research to cleaner-burning vehicles (See: Toyota Prius). In 2002, Toyota successfully road-tested a new version of the RAV4 which ran on a Hydrogen Fuel Cell. Scientific American made the company its Business Leader of the Year in 2003 for commercializing an affordable hybrid car. In 2004, Toyota showed that it had made its Highlander into the world's first mass-market seven-passenger hybrid SUV.
To gain a higher share in the U.S. domestic luxury car market, Toyota introduced a separate brand called Lexus in 1989, following Honda's (with its Acura division) example. The brand was introduced with two models: the ES 250 , based on Toyota Camry, and the LS 400, which was released simultaneously as the Toyota Celsior in Japan. Since then, the lineup has been expanded with other models based on Japanese Toyotas, and the marque has been successful, receiving many industry awards. Now that it has become the number one selling luxury car brand in the U.S., Toyota is introducing it to Japan in 2005, thus completing a cycle of sorts.
In 2003, Toyota brought two of their popular cars from Japan (including the bB) to America, and created a new badge, called Scion, meaning a descendant or heir. These cars are targeted towards the young, and young-at-heart. Both models, the xA (known in Japan as the Toyota ist) and xB (known in Japan as the Toyota bB) are powered by a 1.5L DOHC I4 engine taken right out of the Toyota Echo (known in Japan as the Toyota Platz), a derivative work of the Toyota Tercel .
Toyota has also been successful in racing, especially in Rally with the Toyota Celica. In 2002 Toyota started racing in Formula One with the Toyota Team Europe (TTE) and is based in Cologne (Germany).
Toyota is also famous in industry for its manufacturing philosophy, called the Toyota Production System. This system is copied worldwide by many manufacturing companies.
The Toyota Group contains the following companies, in order of founding:
Toyoda Boshoku Co., Ltd. (founded January 1918, merged with Toyota Motor Co. November 1943, became independent again in May 1950 as Minsei Spinning Co., Ltd., changed name to Toyoda Boshoku Co. in August 1967, merged with Toyota Kako Co., Ltd. October 2000)
Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd., now called Toyota Industries Co. (founded November 1926)
Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (founded August 1937)
Aichi Steel Works, Ltd. (founded March 1940)
Toyoda Machine Works, Ltd. (founded May 1941)
Kanto Auto Works, Ltd. (founded July 1942)
Toyota Auto Body, Ltd. (founded August 1945)
Toyoda Tsusho Kaisha, Ltd., now called Toyota Tsusho Co. (founded July 1948
Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (founded June 1949)
Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. (founded July 1949)
Nippondenso Co., Ltd., now called Denso Co. (founded December 1949)
Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. (founded April 1950, merged with Toyota Motor Corp. July 1982)
Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Co., Ltd. (founded May 1950)
Towa Real Estate Co., Ltd. (Founded August 1953)
Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc. (founded November 1960)
Hino Motors, Ltd. (founded October 1966)
Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. (founded November 1967)
Formula One team
Toyota has participated in the Formula One World Championship since 2002. Despite investing huge amounts of money into the project, the team's performances have so far been mediocre.
In 2004 top designer Mike Gascoyne was hired. It was expected that this would lead to an upturn in the teams fortunes, but this has failed to materialise thus far. The team's current drivers are Jarno Trulli and Ricardo Zonta. Cristiano da Matta was sacked in the middle of the 2004 season after failing to live up to his initial promise.
Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli will race for Toyota in 2005.
Namesakes
Toyota is also a city in Aichi, Japan, named after the corporation. The basketball and hockey stadium in Houston, Texas, the Toyota Center, is also named after the company.
Current and Past Production Vehicles
The following is a partial list of cars Toyota actually produced, or at least planned to produce
Toyota 2000GT (1965) - groundbreaking limited-production sports car
Toyota Altezza
Toyota Aristo
Toyota Avalon
Toyota Avensis
Toyota bB
Toyota Caldina
Toyota Camry
Toyota Camry Solara
Toyota Carina
Toyota Celica
Toyota Century Limousine
Toyota Corolla/Sprinter/Trueno
Toyota Corona/Carina E (the 1965 model exported to the US began rapid sales)
Toyota Corona Mark II (a separate model line to the Corona)
Toyota Cressida/Cresta/Chaser/Mark II
Toyota Crown
Toyota Echo
Toyota FJ40
Toyota FJ45
Toyota FJ55
Toyota FJ60
Toyota FJ62
Toyota Highlander
Toyota Hilux light truck
Toyota HiClass
Toyota HiAce
Toyota ist
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Lexcen (rebadged Holden Commodore in Australia)
Toyota Majesta
Toyota Matrix
Toyota MR2
Toyota Paseo
Toyota Pickup
Toyota Previa
Toyota Prius
Toyota RAV4
Toyota 4Runner
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Soarer
Toyota Starlet
Toyota Stout - Toyota's first light truck imported into the US
Toyota Supra/Celica Supra
Toyota Surf
Toyota T100 - larger size pickup truck; predecessor to Tundra
Toyota Tacoma
Toyota Tercel/Corsa/Corolla II
Toyota Tundra
Toyota Vitz/Platz/Yaris/Echo
Toyota Harrier
Toyota Alphard
Toyota Picnic
Toyota Rush (rebadged Daihatsu Terios)
Toyota Avanza (rebadged Daihatsu Xenia)
Toyota Innova
see also - Toyota's First Production Models / Toyota Concept Cars / Lexus History / Scion History
taken in part from -
http://toyota.biography.ms/
1984 Toyota Cressida
1994 Toyota Pickup
1998 Toyota Avalon
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