Autoweek March, 14
Toyota Motor Corp. will ratchet back production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs in Indiana and Texas in response to slow sales.
The reduction in volume--a rare move for Toyota in North America--will begin in late spring, said Mike Goss, a spokesman for Toyota’s North American production company. He said Toyota has no plan to lay off workers at either plant.
Goss declined to say how many fewer trucks Toyota will produce this year because of the cutback.
Toyota will achieve the reduction by slowing down the production cycle. Normally, Toyota and other automakers rigorously build up the number of vehicles per hour their assembly workers can build.
The slowdown will not affect production of the Sienna minivan, which is built on a separate line at the Tundra-Sequoia plant in Princeton, Indiana.
Toyota opened its second Tundra assembly plant in San Antonio in late 2006 in a bid to compete head-on with the Detroit 3 in full-sized pickups.
The Texas plant gave Toyota annual capacity to build 300,000 Tundras a year or about 25,000 a month. In February, the company sold 14,400.
For the first two months of this year, U.S. light-truck sales declined by 103,558 from the first two months of 2007.
Toyota Motor Corp. will ratchet back production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs in Indiana and Texas in response to slow sales.
The reduction in volume--a rare move for Toyota in North America--will begin in late spring, said Mike Goss, a spokesman for Toyota’s North American production company. He said Toyota has no plan to lay off workers at either plant.
Goss declined to say how many fewer trucks Toyota will produce this year because of the cutback.
Toyota will achieve the reduction by slowing down the production cycle. Normally, Toyota and other automakers rigorously build up the number of vehicles per hour their assembly workers can build.
The slowdown will not affect production of the Sienna minivan, which is built on a separate line at the Tundra-Sequoia plant in Princeton, Indiana.
Toyota opened its second Tundra assembly plant in San Antonio in late 2006 in a bid to compete head-on with the Detroit 3 in full-sized pickups.
The Texas plant gave Toyota annual capacity to build 300,000 Tundras a year or about 25,000 a month. In February, the company sold 14,400.
For the first two months of this year, U.S. light-truck sales declined by 103,558 from the first two months of 2007.
.. now if they sold them for $15k... they would sell the crap out of them.
