Toyota Swot

INTRODUCTION:

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese automobile manufacturer. It is part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest Multi-National Corporations in the world. Its headquarters is located in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. In terms of production, it was ahead of Volkswagen and General Motors in 2012. It has reported on its financial statements that it has 540 subsidiaries and 226 affiliates.

It was founded on August 28, 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as an offshoot of his father’s company Toyota Industries.

In 1936, they launched its first passenger car “Toyota AA”.

It also produces vehicles under brands like Hino,

Lexus, Ranz and Scion. It also holds 51.2% stake in Daihatsu and minority stakes in Fuji Heavy

Previously, it used to sell its small sized vehicles under the name “Toyopet”. This name was not received well in America due to connotations of toys. Subsequently, this name was dropped from American market but continued in other markets till 8-9 years.

• In order to counter the “chicken tax” of 1964, that is, the US government had placed a 25% tax on imported trucks, Toyota began building plants in the US by early 1980s.

• Toyota began participating in motorsports in early 1980s and it has also received its first Japanese Quality Control award. In 1982, Toyota Motor Co. Ltd merged with its sales entity Toyota Motor Sales Co. and the combined organization was named Toyota Motor Corporation. By late 1980s, Toyota started to establish new brands. They launched their luxury division Lexus in

The T100, Camry Solara and several affordable, yet sporty cars were targeted to young adults. In 1997, The Prius, world’s best-selling car was launched. As the penetration into the Europe market was successful, the corporation decided to set up Toyota Motor Europe Marketing and Engineering, to help market vehicles in Europe. As the company’s car started gaining popularity among British drivers, a base in United Kingdom was set up. Bases were also set up in Virginia. Indiana and Tianjin.

• In 2002, Toyota entered a Formula One works team and a year after it managed to establish joint ventures and started producing cars in France with French companies Citroen and Peugeot. It was ranked 8th in Forbes list of world’s leading companies in 2005. In the first quarter of 2008, it was number one in global automobile sales. In 2007, Modern Trend named Tundra as “Truck of the year” and Toyota Camry as “Car of the year”. It also started building factories in Ontario and Mississippi. The company also found success with their smaller models – The Corolla and