Toyota wants to remind America how American it has become "Over the years, the company has announced more than $60 billion in U.S. investments, providing Americans not only with mass-market vehicles and luxury models through Lexus, but also with thousands of jobs across the country. The documentary will also provide a “clear-eyed look” at Toyota’s diverse electrified lineup, including the now-hybrid-only RAV4, which is also available as a plug-in hybrid, as well as EVs such as the bZ and C-HR. The automaker even offers a hydrogen-powered car with the Mirai Toyota operates 11 manufacturing plants in the U.S., with its Kentucky facility serving as both its flagship American plant and its largest manufacturing facility in the world. The documentary will also provide a first look at the $14 billion “mega-site” in Liberty, North Carolina, designed to produce 30 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity annually for hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and BEVs assembled in the U.S." Wonderful example of how a corporation provides needed services while serving the needs of society, improving lives while making a profit. A win-win situation for society and the corporation! Had the privilege of working with the former Plant Manager of the North Carolina Battery Plant - it is a lady who started out at the Toyota Plant in Kentucky as a HR (Human Relations Specialist) and through education, hard work and performance was picked to Manage the North Carolina Battery Plant as it was being built and during start up. Her promotion was well deserved and a successful move for Toyota- yes the USA is a land of opportunity limited only by individuals themselves! Another lady who Toyota promoted to lead and become a Plant Manager - used to work at a grocery store here in town as a butcher's assistant. She hired on at Toyota at an entry level job - went to school while working at Toyota to get her degree and through her hard work and dedication she became a Plant Manager with Toyota. Toyota Manufacturing of Kentucky(Toyota's largest Plant in the world) is currently managed by an individual who started out as a line worker in Assembly at the Kentucky Plant. Toyota Noth America's Electrification Manager started out as an entry level Engineering Specialist at the Toyota Indiana Plant. I personally can vouch for the type of opportunities Toyota is providing Americans each and every day.
Good article and, I agree, Toyota has become as American as apple pie! My parents were so disgusted by their lousy GM car that was constantly back at the dealership for repairs IN THE FIRST YEAR that they traded it in for a 1979 Toyota Cressida. (4-door in baby blue) That thing would, still, be running today if the salty roads hadn't rusted her all out...ended up with over 300,000 miles. Because of that, everyone in the family started buying Toyota's and, over the years, we've owned just about every model sold in the USA with the exception of the Venza and the Echo. I, even, owned a 2012 Scion iQ for about 10-years as my commuter car. (At the same time, also had a Tundra Max Crew so I believe I had the smallest Toyota and the largest Toyota built.) I had a co-worker who worked at the San Antonio plant for 20-years and recently retired....worked his way up the assembly line to being a line supervisor/trainer....their whole family are Toyota fans.
that is a common career path at Toyota - just a wonderful employer. ...often when we talk about companies like Toyota we overlook the fact they are providing tens of thousands of life changing jobs for people who work on the lines making the cars. At the Kentucky Plant the Toyota workforce used to approach 10,000 total employees........ then you have all the necessary parts suppliers, vendors and factories that must be built to support that level of car manufacturing, its truly astounding the type of economic impact those factories have.
I feel most of the JDM factories who have plants in the US, tend to be beneficial for both parties... but Toyota's core philosophies for integration into the society they've built in, far exceeds the others, imo... Honda's been making cars / bikes in Marysville, OH and more than a dozen other US plants, for decades. Any Odyssey you bought in the last 30 yrs had been made here. But as far as creating a culture amongst the collective workforce... feel Toyota's more invested in keeping actual people working in their plants, vs. Honda's current push to move mfg into cheaper-labour countries, at the cost of skilled labour (it even no longer makes Gold Wings or any motorcycles in the US anymore, only cars and crossies -- all motos for the NA market are now mfr'd in Kumamoto, JDM). Subaru pr oll y benefitted being one of the smaller factories most, as Toyota's the biggest shareholder (>20%) -- reflected in the brand's strong market presence and good quality, thru wise tech and resource sharing. On the other hand former competitot Nissan... man that company's always underwater, and for some reason insists on being so -- pairing hastily before drowning with ill-suited partners and grifter CEOs. Renault? Really, Nissan?
Lots of folks are NOT happy with Honda deciding to stop making their gasoline lawn mowers.....now just making electric and, boy are they EVER proud of them.....$2,598 for one??? https://www.acmetools.com/honda-hrc-be-21-inch-commercial-dual-bay-battery-powered-self-propelled-lawn-mower-with-2-120-ah-batteries-atb000011520/ATB000011520.html?gad_source=4&gad_campaignid=17348279237&gbraid=0AAAAADub60sw8xzysTsI-cEdMGXEzgEni&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrs7RBhDuARIsAIVfBD3CK_CRFZGtJn9GsSuVDbRu8IyqZXGPB_oPlMXpA-pm52YlbpyySQcaAmntEALw_wcB
Honda, esp under the Old Man (died in '89), defo was about making thrifty and value-laden machines to make people's lives better. He was an enthusiast as well, so in add'n to making the highest mass-produced 2-whl vehicle in history (Super Cub and all its foreign copies atop the >100M made by Honda)... made F1 cars and Grand Prix motos too. But once he died... a lot of that drive for purpose lost its way -- esp the larger, higher-profit vehicles... Would still buy a Honda inverter generator, if I still lived in every-November-four-days-of-blackout-because-wind-blew-down-a-tree-on-power-lines Seattle-Tacoma area. But one of their cars? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
Yep, Honda would be my 2nd choice for vehicles....along with Mazda....good quality stuff. Many years ago, I had a 750cc Honda Motorcycle. I loved that thing but the pesky carburetor really chapped my hide (wouldn't stay in tune) so I ended up selling her after researching how much it would cost to swap out the carb with EFI, electronic fuel injectors....big bucks!)
Yeah esp on the older air-cooled machines, no Holley Sniper-like wide-adoption retrofit exists, as not enough money in it, and defo not enough room. In an upright-cylinder'd bike, carburetors were put behind it -- one of the reasons why Yamaha in the '80s developed the Genesis engines, which tilted their cylinders forward 45º, despite being both liquid-cooled and carbureted. Why? Because when you put the carbs behind the cylinders, the air and fuel have to turn 90 degrees to get in -- so if you could tilt the cylinders forward, both more room for carbs, and at an angle their mixture has a straighter shot at the top of the piston. That's why more modern carbed sportbikes, while still rare, had EFI retrofit systems available at some point in time -- not as good as later OEM designs, but someone felt the need. Then there's frame and tank design. On a modern (post-Genesis) dual-spar sportbike frame, there's a lot more room for an airbox and carbs under a purpose-shaped fuel tank, than on a '60s / '70s UJM (basically variations on the classic '50s Norton Featherbed). So really unless you're willing to mod the tank too, for room to put a fuel rail and injectors... the tiny amt of real estate everywhere under a UJM tank, means a lot of compromises a home wrench isn't gonna take (unless they're badasses -- and oh yeah a tonne of them out there fabbing on their machines in private, for sure). But sold as a kit? Sadly no
