A nice write up by Junichi Maruyama regarding how toyota is the company it is today,Interesting to note is toyota is projecting the prius of taking up the mantle of becoming the new face of toyota from the corolla.Toyota is one company which demands respect,great attention is paid even for simple things like logistics and that is why they are so different from the others and the end product speaks for itself.
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Nearly 70 years after its founding, Toyota Motor Corp. is on the brink of becoming the world's largest automaker.
Toyota's growth as a manufacturer of passenger cars began in 1957, when it began exporting vehicles to the United States.
In 1955, Toyota started production of the Crown, which was the nation's first domestically produced model. However, Toyota was not in a position to immediately start exporting the vehicle to the United States.
At the time, Japanese cars had a reputation in the United States as being quick to break down. With many Americans regularly driving long distances, cars tarnished by such an image would be doomed to fail in the market.
To showcase the Crown's durability, Toyota drove one from London to Tokyo--a 50,000-kilometer trip. Although this demonstration initially failed to energize Crown sales in the United States, the 50,000-kilometer journey raised eyebrows worldwide and ushered in a change in the image of Japanese-made cars.
Toyota's exports gradually increased to 1 million units in 1969. Toyota expanded its domestic plants and grabbed the mantle of Japan's largest automaker by a wide margin from Nissan Motor Co. Toyota has not relinquished this spot since then.
Since the 1970s, disputes over the jump in imports of Japanese cars into the U.S. market snowballed into government-level trade conflicts. Toyota made NUMMI mass-produce the Corolla and other compact models to ease the simmering trade friction.
NUMMI's success inspired Toyota to expand other overseas production bases. Toyota opened plants in western Europe, Southeast Asia and eastern Europe. Today, it churns out vehicles at 52 plants in 26 countries and regions.
Toyota solidified its leading position in Japan on the success of exports to the United States, and production in the same country has catapulted the automaker to the position of the world's No. 1. Now, Toyota aims to underpin its position as the global No. 1 by tapping into the U.S. market for a third time.
Following the success of the Crown and Corolla models, Toyota is pinning its hopes on the Prius, a hybrid car that produces low emissions.
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