For the past 30 years, Toyota the car company has been slowly but surely inching its way to the top of the auto world. Until recently, it has been a symbol of a company making all the right decisions.
The company actually made its first car in 1936, while still a division of Toyota Industries. Toyota Motor Company was established in 1937, after being spun off from Toyota Industries, and over the past 70 years, via other mergers and changes, the company finally became Toyota Motor Corporation.
Toyota's first presence in Canada was a plant in Delta, British Columbia (1983), making aluminum alloy wheels for the North American and Japanese markets. In 1986 the company built a huge facility in Georgetown, Kentucky and in 1987 opened a very large operation in Cambridge, Ontario. Today, the company has operations in numerous locations throughout North America.
In 2006, Toyota became the world's most profitable auto company, earning $11 billion that year. And in 2008 it surpassed General Motors as the world's largest automaker.
According to the Toyota Canada website, the company has manufacturing facilities in Woodstock and Cambridge, Ontario. Total investment since inception is $5.6 Billion, and employment as of January 1, 2009 at these plants stood at 5,700. So this company is very important to the Ontario economy and in particular to South Western Ontario.
As we all know, in September of 2008, we started to feel the serious effects of "The Great Recession" and since then, virtually all news for the North American car industry has been grim. Without billions of taxpayer dollars--we will get the full count someday--Chrysler and General Motors would no longer exist. The bad news continues, as we learn that Toyota may close its 25-year joint venture operation in Fremont, California, where 4,700 people are employed. General Motors, the joint venture partner, has already pulled out, leaving Toyota holding the bag.
Just this week, Yoshimi Inaba, CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said that Toyota continues to lose money in North America despite cost cutting efforts. According to reports in the Detroit News, Toyota's sales in North America have fallen 38 percent in the first six months of the year to 770,000 cars and trucks--from nearly 1.25 million vehicles in the first six months of 2008. These are very big and scary numbers.
It should be obvious to all observers that Toyota will look everywhere for more cost cutting initiatives, which usually means fewer jobs. I am very concerned about Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's new program to give Ontario consumers $10,000 in a provincial handout to those who purchase a General Motors Volt. This program won't be in effect until 2010 as there are no Volts to purchase right now; this is a kind of stimulus in waiting.
The Volt is a very expensive car and may retail at the $40,000 mark. May I suggest to Premier McGuinty, my former colleague and friend, a program to get clunkers off the road and geared towards cars people can afford to buy. Just a thought.
