Toyota Weighs New Hybrid Production

Just a heads-up, it looks like you have to be a member to access the full article. What I read ends with "said..." lol

But thanks for the news!

 

I can read the entire article if you goggle the title and follow the link from there.

 

Thank you! You're totally correct - Googling the article lead me to the full thing. And I'd say it's not surprising that at some point an article/issue like this would come up. With demand only increasing as the years go on, production rates have to match. I especially noted the lines at the end about demand may soar with the expected new compact Prius (read "prius c/aqua"). :-p Darn tootin'!

 

Yep, that's the trick to read full WSJ articles due to an agreement that they currently have.

 

Yep, if the new c/aqua comes in at $18K-$19K it and comes with 60+ mpg it will explode in this market.

 

That article and others call one of the new vehicles a Prius Minivan but fueleconomy.gov calls it a Midsize Station Wagon.

 

Reads like they mean JDM only production. Even so this would free up the other plants production lines.

 

The article is referring to Japan. In Japan (and Europe) the Prius + and alpha are available with 7 seats, which is one of the reasons it's so popular. In the USA people obsess about carrying passengers and cargo at the same time. In other countries they obsess about carrying passengers and use the roof rack the rest of the time.

 

article talks about Japan but i am sure any production will result in more units available world wide.

 

I don't find it suprising that subsidiary of Toyota would advocate to take on more production and want to grow. What I find interesting, is that they would take this desire public outside of Toyota. This is the type of inner workings that is generally kept between Toyota and their subsidiaries. It's Toyota's decision whether they want to expand production and utilize subsidiaries to that end. But typically in Japanese business, this would be initiated from Toyota on down, NOT a decision initiated from the subsidiary.

Personally, I leave it up to Toyota to project demand and make decisions. I think Toyota has gotten in trouble with rapid growth recently and I think recent supply problems have more to do with disaster and recovery in Japan than the absence of production plants.

Selfishly, if Toyota were to expand hybrid production, as a citizen of the US, I'd rather see them open a production plant in the US and supply an incarnation of Prius directly. I believe plans to open a Prius plant in Missisippi were delayed indefinently. I'd much rather Toyota revisit that possibility before opening or expanding plants that would primarily meet supply only for the JDM market. But I admit that is mostly a selfish P.O.V. .

 

+1 to that. With the monetary exchange effects and the fuel to transport finished goods it makes sense to put plants in different countries to allow production in the target currency and/or in a country with a favorable currency for exporting.

Between exchange rates and disaster recovery/business continuity it makes sense to not put all the Prius production in the same basin. An earthquake anywhere in the pacific ocean could affect Japan and the US west coast (among other large targets) so it makes sense to avoid putting the plant out of range of a pacific Tsunami (east of the Rocky Mountains). Just so long as that plant is closer to the TN/Mississippi border so it isn't affected by Gulf Coast flooding (Hurricanes) and wouldn't be affected by the Missisipi river taking the Atchafalaya bypass any more than the rest of the US would be.

If it's Blue Springs, MS it's near I-22, Tupelo, and not to far from Memphis (FedEx). So even if the Mississippi takes the Atchafalaya bypass they aren't counting on river transportation.