COMPANY

Japanese car giant Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the world’s largest makers of passenger cars. It is known as much for the volume of cars its sells worldwide annually as it is for introducing to the world some pioneering concepts in efficient manufacturing of cars.

Toyota was responsible to a great deal in breaking the dominance of the Big 3 car makers in the US and bringing to the world a range of good-quality and affordable cars.

Toyota, headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda. This company was a spin-off of Toyota Industries, a company owned by Toyoda’s father. Toyota Motor Sales Co. Ltd was established in 1950 during a serious financial crisis that the company was undergoing.

The company began by targeting the small-car niche and introduced three small cars, the Toyopet Crown, Toyopet Master and Crown Deluxe in 1955. Soon after, Toyota made its foray into the US car market by launching the Crown there. The oil crisis of 1973 came as a boon for Toyota as consumers flocked towards small cars that offered much greater fuel efficiency than the fuel-guzzling cars available in the market then. This was the time when Toyota really entrenched itself not only in the minds of the American car buyer, but also in America by setting up manufacturing plants in the country.

By the early 80s, Toyota had set new benchmarks in quality control processes and received several quality control awards as well. Toyota Motor Corporation, as the company is known today, was born in 1982 after the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales were merged into a single entity.

From small to medium-sized passenger cars, Toyota also forayed into the luxury car segment with its Lexus brand in 1989. Other popular Toyota models include the Tundra, Camry and Scion, while the Prius which was launched in 1997, became the world’s best-selling hybrid car. The Toyota Corolla is one of the world’s largest selling cars, with more than 30 million units already being sold. The Toyota Century Royal is the official state car of the Japanese imperial family. It is a limited-edition model produced for the current Emperor of Japan.

Toyota, which also ventured into motorsports with a team in the Formula One as well, now has manufacturing plants in the US, UK and China apart from its manufacturing bases in Japan.