Toyota to Make Hybrid in U.S.
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By The New York Times
May 18, 2005
DETROIT - Toyota Motor announced on Tuesday plans to build a hybrid version of its Camry sedan in the United States, the first gas-electric vehicle that the automaker will manufacture outside Japan.
Toyota will start building the hybrid Camry in the second half of next year and plans to make about 48,000 of them in the first year of production. That is a healthy volume for an introductory vehicle, particularly a hybrid, and would equal about 11 percent of all Camrys sold in the United States last year.
For the most part, Toyota did not discuss the details of its new hybrid program, including specifics about the new Camry's powertrain. But a senior company executive did acknowledge that Toyota had plans to build other hybrids in North America.
"This isn't going to be the only vehicle of hybrid derivation that's going to be produced in the United States or in North America," Jim Press, chief operating officer of Toyota's American sales division, said at a news conference Tuesday morning. Mr. Press did not elaborate on when and where additional hybrid manufacturing might take place.
Toyota plans to center its American hybrid program at the company's manufacturing complex in Georgetown, Ky., where the new hybrid Camry will be built. As production on the Camry begins, some parts, including the battery, will be manufactured in Japan. Later, Toyota plans to produce more hybrid parts in Kentucky.
"There's a very strong commitment to want to localize more and more of these components, and we'll be very active and aggressive in trying to do that," said Gary L. Convis, the Toyota managing officer who oversees the Georgetown plant.
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