Toyota

Toyota Corporation is a Japanese automaker. It is the world's second largest automaker behind General Motors; however it ranks first in net worth, revenue and profit. It is also the only car manufacturer to appear in the top 10 of the BrandZ ranking.

The company was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as a spinoff from his father (Sakichi Toyoda)'s company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. In 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product Type A engine and its first passenger car (the Toyota AA) in 1936. It is headquartered in the Japanese cities of Toyota and Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture and in Tokyo. It also provides financial services through its division Toyota Financial Services and also creates robots besides automobiles. The company along with the original Toyota Industries form bulk of the Toyota Group.

Toyota owns and operates Toyota, Lexus, Scion, has a majority shareholding in Daihatsu Motors [6], and has minority shareholdings in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, and the engine, motorcycle and marine craft manufacturer Yamaha Motors. The company includes 522 subsidiaries. Toyota planned to produce 9.51 and sold 9.37 million vehicles overall in 2007, becoming the world's largest automaker if it surpasses General Motors sales estimate of 9.30 million vehicles. It plans to produce 9.95 and sell 9.85 million vehicles in 2008 setting an industry record if it happens..

On 8 January 2008, the company dropped "Motor" from its corporate name, calling itself simply "Toyota Corporation" from "Toyota Motor Corporation." Also, Toyota changed the Japanese writing of its brand name from Katakana to Kanji and "Corporation" has moved from the end to the beginning.

Founding and earlier history

Founder Kiichiro Toyoda

In 1933, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works created a new division devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Kiichiro Toyoda had traveled to Europe and the United States in 1929 to investigate automobile production, and had begun researching gasoline-powered engines in 1930. Toyoda Automatic Loom Works was encouraged to develop Automobile production by the Japanese government, which needed domestic vehicle production partly due to the worldwide money shortage and partly due to the war with China. In 1934, the division produced its first Type A Engine, which was used in the first Model A1 passenger car in May 1935 and the G1 truck in August 1935. Production of the Model AA passenger car started in 1936. Early vehicles bear a striking resemblance to the Dodge Power Wagon and Chevrolet, with some parts actually interchanging with their American originals.

Toyoda automatic loom (Type G)

Although the Toyota Group is best known today for its cars, it is still in the textile business and still makes automatic looms, which are now fully computerized, and electric sewing machines which are available worldwide.

Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent and separate company in 1937. Although the founding family's name is Toyoda (豊田), the company name was changed in order to signify the separation of the founders' work life from home life, to simplify the pronunciation, and to give the company a happy beginning. Toyota (トヨタ) is considered luckier than Toyoda (豊田) in Japan, where eight is regarded as a lucky number, and eight is the number of strokes it takes to write Toyota in katakana. In Chinese, the company and its vehicles are still referred to by the equivalent characters (traditional Chinese: 豐田; simplified Chinese: 丰田; pinyin: fēng tián), with Chinese reading.

Replica of the Toyota Model AA, the first production model of Toyota in 1936

1957 Toyopet Crown

During the Pacific War (World War II) the company was dedicated to truck production for the Imperial Japanese Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight on the center of the hood. The war ended shortly before a scheduled Allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi.

After the war, commercial passenger car production started in 1947 with the model SA. The quality and production principles on which Toyota is based originated in an education program from the United States Army in the postwar era. In 1950 a separate sales company, Toyota Motor Sales Co., was established (which lasted until July 1982). In April 1956 the Toyopet dealer chain was established. The following year, the Toyota Crown became the first Japanese car to be exported to the United States and Toyota's American and Brazilian divisions, Toyota Motor Sales Inc. and Toyota do Brazil S.A., were also established. Toyota began to expand in the 1960s with a new research and development facility, a presence in Thailand was established, the 10 millionth model was produced, a Deming Prize and partnerships with Hino Motors and Daihatsu were also established. The first Toyota built outside Japan was in April 1963, at Port Melbourne in Australia. By the end