About Toyota Cars
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki-gaisha today is known simply as 'Toyota' and is the largest car manufacturer in the world. It was founded in 1933 as a division of The Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Kiichiro Toyoda who was the son of founder, Toyota, decided he wanted to change direction and started to build cars. He therefore went to Europe to learn about gas-powered engines. The Government at that time welcomed this decision, mainly as this would save the country an awful lot of money but also because they needed vehicles for the war with China.
The first engine that the Toyota Motor Company created was the Type A which was placed in the G1 truck and Model A1 passenger car.
During WWII, Toyota kept their commitment to making trucks and their factories in Aichi thankfully were not bombed.
Once the war was over they resumed making cars, however their greatest success at the time was in the making of buses and trucks. They did though continue to make cars and in 1947 they unveiled the Model SA, or better known as the Toyopet.
Their next car, the Model SF was more successful and was even made as a taxi; however the engine size remained the same as the Model SA, and both had a 27 horsepower engine. The next model, the RH, had a more powerful engine of 48 HP and following this, the production of cars increased. 8400 cars were made from 1955. That same year they also added a Land Cruiser, which was very much like a Jeep and the Crown which was a luxury sedan.
Now that they had produced successful models Toyota wanted to expand further and approach the international markets. Their first international dealership was in 1957 with America and following this they forged links with Brazil where they opened their first plant there in 1959. One of their marketing strategies was that they produced unique models specific to each country and saw once again huge success.
Toyota finally broke into America in the 1970s as the rise in gas prices forced local car manufacturers to make smaller cars which played to Toyota's advantage as they had already made many small fuel-efficient models that were of much better quality than the new cars that were being made. The Toyota Corolla soon became America's most favoured smallest and fuel-efficient car.
However, despite this success, Toyota still had difficulty in accessing the luxury car market and both the Crown and the Cressida did not sell that well. In the 1980s, all luxury cars in America were having difficulty being sold, not just those from Toyota. This was when Toyota had the idea to form the company, Lexus, which would sell only luxury cars.
In the early 1990s, Toyota vehicles became known worldwide in terms of their reliability and low maintenance costs and this made them increasingly popular. Within this decade they launched the MR2 model and the Celica.
At present, Toyota has gained much success with its hybrid model the Toyota Prius and is in production of its new car which will be an electric 'plug-in' car known as the Toyota Plug-in HV. This will run on electricity powered by a battery pack.