TOYOTA Motor Corp, struggling to meet demand in the United States and facing a possible political backlash over its imports from Japan, may build as many as five North American assembly plants in the next 10 years, Bloomberg News reported people familiar with the plans as saying.
The Japanese auto maker will build at least one auto factory in the southeastern US and one in Mexico, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the company hasn't discussed the matter publicly.
Five more plants would give Toyota 12 in North America, about the same number Ford Motor Co will have after its current round of closings. Based on Toyota's recent factory investments, five plants would create about 10,000 jobs and cost US$5 billion.
"We're doing right now a fairly in-depth study for 2015," Jim Lentz, Toyota's executive vice president of US sales, said in an interview at this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. He declined to say whether any new plants would be built.
Toyota's US sales surged 13 percent last year to 2.54 million vehicles, pushing its market share to a record 15.4 percent from 13.3 percent a year earlier. Toyota overtook DaimlerChrysler AG for third place in US sales behind General Motors Corp and Ford. It may pass GM as the world's biggest auto maker this year.
The company's North American capacity last year was 1.5 million vehicles, and it brought in 1.18 million cars and trucks from Japan to meet demand. The imports broke Toyota's 20-year-old industry record and accounted for 46 percent of US sales.
Irv Miller, vice president of corporate communications for Toyota's US sales unit at its US headquarters in Torrance, California, declined to give any details on the company's internal planning.
"Are we studying new capacity? Of course," Miller said. He said "the market is going to determine" how many plants are built.
Toyota executives' concern about US criticism of the company's mounting imports of Japanese-built autos is fueling the urgency behind production plans, the people said. Toyota also wants to limit exposure to currency fluctuations against Japan's yen by building more vehicles where they're sold, the people said.
Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who became chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee when his party regained control of Congress in November's election, issued a statement on December 22 saying Toyota has advantages over GM because of Japan's state-run health-care and pension systems. Toyota benefits from a Japanese government that "manipulates the yen for strategic advantage," he said.
Adam Benson, a Dingell aide in the US capital Washington, declined to comment yesterday.
