Toyota News Thread

[Livedevil]

Rav4 plant?

we are 3 plants here, we build Rav 4 Hybrids with Camry in one plant and that plant is not shutting down, the plant shutting down where i work is Camry and Avalon, the 3rd plant Lexus is still to be determined, we are all connected on the same site.

Sponsored

 

[RenRed2]

New car sales are projected to rise merely 3.4 percent in 2022, and you can guess why. From Bloomberg:

U.S. auto sales will climb just 3.4% this year to 15.4 million cars and trucks as the semiconductor shortages continue to constrain vehicle inventory, auto dealers predict.
The National Automobile Dealers Association, which represents 16,000 U.S. car retailers, said the lingering chip shortage slashed inventory on dealer lots by 59% in December compared to a year earlier. The organization said it expects inventories will remain diminished into the second half of 2022.

Before 2020, more than 17 million cars were sold in the U.S. per year for the previous five years.

The twin crises of the pandemic and the semiconductor shortage have taken a toll on U.S. auto sales, which totaled 14.93 million last year, up 3.1% from 2020, when lockdowns hit the economy. Prior to the pandemic, the U.S. auto market had a five-year run of sales topping 17 million. The dealer group said inventory is “slowly improving,” but noted the chip shortage cut global auto production by 11.3 million vehicles.

https://jalopnik.com/tesla-is-inching-dangerously-close-to-taking-the-luxury-1848343741

 

[RenRed2]

https://jalopnik.com/toyota-is-doing-an-intentional-pause-1848666188

1st Gear: Toyota’s ‘Intentional Pause’
Toyota released a statement on Thursday outlining its production plans for the next three months, and what it amounts to is more or less how Toyota learned to stop worrying and love the semiconductor shortage. Toyota’s statement is worth quoting at length because it is so unusual:

Up until now, we have conducted recovery production with tremendous efforts from the various relevant parties with the aim of delivering to customers as many vehicles as possible at the earliest possible date. However, due to the parts shortage, we have had to make repeated last-minute adjustments to production plans, and this has imposed considerable burdens on production sites including those of suppliers.
Under these circumstances and in light of a review of past developments, we have revised production plans to be more reasonable in line with recent realities. Specifically, we have positioned the three-month period from April to June as an “intentional pause,” and we will create plans based on the personnel structures and facility capacities of suppliers. By doing this, we will establish healthy workplace environments that place the highest priority on safety and quality, rather than exceeding the capacities of facilities, pushing people to their limits, and making do through overtime work. We will then inform our suppliers of plans that incorporate production reduction risks and other factors up to three months in advance, review production plans on a monthly and three-monthly basis, and share these plans with our suppliers.
Based on the above, our global production plan for April including overseas production is approximately 750,000 units (250,000 units in Japan and 500,000 units overseas). Although the number of units we provided to our suppliers at the beginning of the year includes recovery from previous production cutbacks, due to the impact of semiconductor shortages, we have adjusted our production plan by approximately 150,000 units globally. The global production plan average from April through June is around 800,000 units.

Toyota made a little more than 10 million cars last year, or around 840,000 per month, so its new goal of 800,000 per month still isn’t too far off, though Toyota’s capitulation to [vaguely gestures at everything] is also very relatable. I, too, am intentionally pausing if all of the bullshit continues.

Related Stories

 

[KahnBB6]

https://www.motor1.com/news/590913/toyota-hints-at-sporty-gr-camry-sedan-and-production-gr-gt3/

This is a slate of good news! The GR division isn't resting at all with their current four models (Supra, 86, Yaris and Corolla).

I'd guess that the easiest way to offer a GR performance sedan is with the non-hatch Corolla body. However it would be great if they gave the Camry a proper high performance driveline... OR.... if they were to leverage their partnership with Mazda for that new RWD chassis architecture of theirs and their new inline-six engine family. That way they could offer a new Mark II/X/Chaser. Hey-- I can dream!

The electrified model would most likely be a hybrid gas-electric but they could be planning something intended for use with their solid state battery technology whenever it's deemed ready. I'd be willing to bet that whatever level of electrification that model would get it would likely have something to do with that GR-badged orange color EV concept that suspiciously looks like a new-age MR2 which was previewed a few months back during Toyota's big EV reveal press conference. Maybe...?

The GR GT3 concept entering development is what we'd all hoped for. The article hints that it's expected to be a future Lexus model but... I hope it will actually be a Toyota and the basis for an A100 Supra.

Whatever these things turn out to be I'm expecting good things from the GR division.

 

[RenRed2]

Volvo’s CEO: Semiconductors Are ‘Back in Full Supply’ for Us
The worst days of the semiconductor shortage may be over, at least for one automaker.

 

[ToyoBMW]

Volvo’s CEO: Semiconductors Are ‘Back in Full Supply’ for Us
The worst days of the semiconductor shortage may be over, at least for one automaker.

It has been over, it's turning into a glut. But the manufacturers don't want anyone to know this, to keep prices inflated and artificially keep supply tight.

 

[RenRed2]

It has been over, it's turning into a glut. But the manufacturers don't want anyone to know this, to keep prices inflated and artificially keep supply tight.

Cars are starting to pile up at dealers in many places. Used in particular and sales are way down - inflation and interest rates.

I have my M4 order on hold here in Germany. No need to rush that now at all. When the real impact of supply is felt I will look for a slightly used one lol. Those prices will feel pressure first. Dealers and the makers can fk off!

 

[ToyoBMW]

Cars are starting to pile up at dealers in many places. Used in particular and sales are way down - inflation and interest rates.

I have my M4 order on hold here in Germany. No need to rush that now at all. When the real impact of supply is felt I will look for a slightly used one lol. Those prices will feel pressure first. Dealers and the makers can fk off!

Well there is a real supply shortage still. Just not a shortage of chips

 

[XtremeMaC]

It has been over, it's turning into a glut. But the manufacturers don't want anyone to know this, to keep prices inflated and artificially keep supply tight.

I beg to differ... Shortage still persist. Companies are still playing catch-up.
I think it's an attempt to be in the news to try to sell more.. Not sure what happens when you go to Volvo dealer now and order something that's not in the inventory..

 

[GoldenEye]

No they weren’t! I sell Toyotas, there’s a lot to be said but let me just clear it up quickly, NO ONE was prepared for what happened! We had set backs like you wouldn’t believe, the chip shortage is just one piece of why we STILL only have about 2-5 new vehicles on the lot that are for sale!

"Toyota was, as far as we can tell, the only automaker properly equipped to deal with chip shortages," said a person familiar with Harman International, which specializes in car audio systems, displays and driver assistance technology.
Two of the sources who spoke to Reuters are Toyota engineers, and the others are at companies involved in the chip business.

Toyota surprised rivals and investors last month when it said its output would not be disrupted significantly by chip shortages even as Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Honda and Stellantis, among others, have been forced to slow or suspend some production.

Toyota, meanwhile, has raised its vehicle output for the fiscal year ending this month and jacked up its full-year earnings forecast by 54%.

It appears Toyota is getting its production schedule back to normal quicker than the others vehicle manufactures!

 

[FLtrackdays]

Opinion: Akio Toyoda’s announcement putting Toyota 1st by keeping automobile power sources open past the 2035 deadline?

https://www.motortrend.com/news/toy...c-vehicles-hydrogen-fuel-cell-plug-in-hybrid/

 

[J29DB03]

Toyota’s R&D in a hydrogen future played a part in my decision to buy a Supra.

 

[XtremeMaC]

It's logical not revolutionary... Big 3 are too quick to drop ICE as they don't want to be way behind Tesla.
Infrastructure in US is shit, there still is so many people losing power especially during storms (not even major ones) and so many people with 1% cell phone charge and many remote locations.. Can't imagine people switching all household vehicles by 2035 in US, definitely not the whole world. So to continue ICE for other countries makes sense for sure and for US. Other OEs perhaps, instead, have plants local to those regions instead, yet good labor, stable politics/regions comes into play..

 

[Xproplayer]

I wish we knew if anyone was planning to make a hybrid sports car (in the 30-70k price segment to capture our cars and classics like miata / 86 / mr2 / corvette)

 

[Tsuki]

Everyone else is going to figure it out eventually. Listen, I wait with open arms for whatever the future brings - I think electric cars are incredible, and hydrogen (especially looking at things like that Hyundai concept) is a more viable way forward, once it's sustainable.

I just don't think an all-electric future is it. Europe is currently having an energy crisis, having been cut off from Russia. California has already had to start asking people NOT to charge their EVs, as the grid couldn't handle it. The grid in Texas - which, 2 years ago, I would have argued was probably one of the best in the world - struggles with running the HVAC in peoples' homes already.

If the world is going to go all-in on electric, that's fine - but we need much, much more clean energy than we're currently producing. Orders of magnitude more power, quite frankly. People need to understand that we cannot keep trying to push people towards electric cars with one side of our mouth, while telling them that they need to conserve energy with the other.

There's going to be another crisis with battery recycling eventually as well, unless we can spin up enough capacity in recycling plants to handle the other side of this electric future, but that's a whole different discussion...

Sponsored