It would be somewhat ironic to build the Prius at the NUMMI plant: It was once a GM plant that built El Caminos in the 70's and was closed - then reopened as a joint venture between Toyota and GM in the 80's to build Corollas and Geo Prizms.

I hope it happens.

US built Prius.....well there goes Toyota's quality.

Actually the NUMMI plant has won awards for their quality. It was Toyota's first attempt to build cars in the US.

NUMMI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American autoworkers build very good cars when they're not morphed into UAW slugs.

The article states "The Prius is currently built in Japan and China." Despite the fact that China is trying to shed the preconception that their products are low quality, there have been numerous reports of Chinese recalls over the past year. I would not yet call Chinese products "quality."

Most importantly though, this would boost production volume of Prius to better meet the intense demand. Best-case scenario: Toyota doubles the volume of Prius, dealers sell at MSRP or lower (instead of the current markup), and more Americans buy Prius!

What an idiotic statement.

NUMMI: Corolla, Tacoma
Toyota Manufacturing Kentucky: Camry (since 1988), Avalon (since 1995), Camry Hybrid (since introduction)
Toyota Manufacturing Indiana: Sienna

Yeah, those are all really poorly built, low-quality unreliable cars. They probably sell in very low numbers.

Smart move by Toyota to head off any possible hybrid 'voluntary export restraints' from the US Government. As car sales from Detroit continue to tank and sales of Asian hybrids continue to explode, don't be surprised is the US Gov't jumps in to 'help' Detroit by imposing import quotas on Japanese manufactured hybrids. By producing Hybrids in the USA, it will be difficult for the US Government to impose any protectionary measures. As oil prices continue to rise, it's going to get even more ugly for GM and Ford since they simply don't have high mpg cars to sell and the US Government may not stand idly by while Detroit fades into irrelevance.

joe1347,

thanks for jumpiing in an pointing out this possible, even probable
scenario. Fundamentally it makes a lot of sense. It would be another case
of Toyota following a forward looking strategic plan as opposed to Detroit's
"Slam, Bam, Thank you Mam," grab and run approach.

On the other paw, it was two USA-built models (new V8 4WD Tundras; new V6 Camrys) that caused Consumer Reports to no longer assume that Toyota builds quality cars:
ConsumerReports.org - Reliability trends
(They also mention the Lexus GS as having problems; I don't know where that's assembled).

No excuse on the Tundra, but the problem with Camry V6 was mainly due to poor transmission programming. Don't blame that on the assembly workers...
I live a few miles from NUMMI. I hope Toyota build Prius here. It feel good to buy local.

Nothing wrong w/ unionizing. Stats show almost 20% worse conditions/wages/benefits for non-union workers. Remember Reagan busting up flight controllers union? To this day, they now have very long hours, lower pay, and huge emotional/stress related problems. Just sayin' carefull what you wish on others, as the same measure may get meeted out to thine own self.

Edit:
With peak oil, and the end of cheep fuel/ever upward spiraling costs, there may be a big savings that Japan's numbers crunchers came up with to make building the Prius here more affordable, too.

They are looking at just assembling the Prius at the NUMI plant. All the parts would come from Japan. So it'll me Made in Japan (assembled in US). And yes there are import tax advantages of doing this.

well...i not surprised. we all knew it was going to happen somewhere. the Prius may not be where we need to be, its by far the best option we have available and will remain a great choice for many even after other advances are out. the more they make now, the more used Pri's will be available for those who cant afford the estimated $30,000 for an EV/plug in

My GF has a 2001 Avalon built in Kentucky. It is a mixture; some parts from Japan, some from the US. We also used to have a 93 Toyota Pickup built at NUMMI; it had both US sourced parts (the battery was a Delco) and parts from Japan.

But this is not that different from domestic makes: my 97 Ford Explorer has parts sourced from the US, Canada, Mexico and Germany (fuel injectors).


The lines are very blurred now between "foreign" cars and "domestic" cars.

Actually, they've been making them in China for local consumption for a couple years now - since around end of 2005. And sales are actually flat in China because of some weirdness eventhough the Chinese government has placed incentives for cleaner/greener vehicles. I am not sure about the Civic Hybrids - but there is also some historic misgivings between the two so it may play to an American automotive advantage.

Would be very interesting to know the differences in quality between China and Japan. This is the first I've heard of some Prii being built in China.... Shocking !

Hardly, past practice has already proved the statement. US design is great but the workers quality control is terrible. But what could we expect when vehicles that are designed by people with higher education are put together and maintained by people with a only a high school education. Sad but true.

its not that american worker quality is poor, its that for the most part, american companies have too much profit margins, cost cutting and what not on the list above quality...been that way for years.

they know how to design and make a quality product...it simply is not their priority

I think Tripp was talking about how performance seems to drop when pepole are indoctrinated into unions. Especially among unions that protect substandard workers, UAW, NEA... (not saying all workers in these unions are substandard, but that the substandard ones receive unwarranted protection)

Just because workers have "good" working conditions doesn't make them "good" workers.