That's like Toyota saying "Canada's future economy looks brighter", possibly due to the natural resources they have and the devaluation of paper money around the world.
Its not how bright Canada's economy is, its the difference in costs. It costs more to build a Lexus in Japan than in NA. If that vehicle is going to be sold in north america, you also save the transportation costs, and inventory costs. Toyota is also changing Yaris sold in NA from being manufactured in Japan, to being made in Europe.
Toyota is moving hybrid production away from Japan wherever possible. It allows them to lower costs. In the USA Lexus have sold 5.5k RXh during the first 6 months of the year and lowering the price might help shift more hybrids, so that 15,000 capacity isn't extraordinary. The more hybrids they can produce in NA the more chance of growing the necessary infrastructure to produce hybrid components outside of Japan, which is one of the big blockers to reducing the cost further. That's the additional components. They've said that they won't move NiMH production outside of Japan, but for the future they're looking to produce lithium batteries elsewhere.
Also keep in mind that Lexus' standards for quality and workmanship is much higher than that of Toyota. The Toyota plant in Cambridge, ON is the only plant outside of Japan that meets the standards to build a Lexus vehicle. It's also the same plant that builds the Corolla and Matrix (and formerly built the Solara and RAV4). I'm fairly certain that the RXh is Canada's best selling Lexus hybrid (unless the CT200h has overtaken it recently). The RX is also the best selling Lexus SUV in Canada too.
According to June 2012 Small Luxury SUV Sales And Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - GOOD CAR BAD CAR and Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog » Canada June 2012: Dodge Grand Caravan at highest since 2007 Prius v 422 Prius 339 Prius c 272 CT 136 RXh 86 (RX 694)
Toyota Inc increases production of SUV's but if it's a different manufacturer: GM adds third shift at Texas plant, 800 jobs (produces monstrosity class SUVs) | PriusChat unleash the dogs!
Yep people seem pretty fickle here, GM bad, Toyota good even if its the same thing. To me its all good as long as the fleet gets more efficient and people get back to work. It would be nice if toyota after this move, starts building Lexus ES hybrids in North Amercia. That may be a large volume hybrid in the US with the old folks. North American workers are definitely capable of building things with Lexus quality, as this Canadian story illustrates.
Thanks! So the CT did overtake the RXh as the best selling Lexus hybrid (I should put "Lexus" in my previous post as well...) This is also a good opportunity to show how small our market is compared to the U.S.
