Toyotas At an event attended by the US ambassador to Japan over the weekend, the chairman launched a charm offensive, donning a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat as his company attempts to appease the Trump administration with further US investment and exports to Japan.
Automotive News According to reports, the event, hosted by Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda at Fuji Speedway on November 16, was an American spectacle with dozens of American flags and a menu full of barbecue dishes – plus a number of US-built Toyotas and even Fords on display.
Toyoda-san drove a Ford F-150 – not his own company’s rival Tundra – around the track before a NASCAR demo drive with Ambassador George Glass. The ambassador shared various pictures from the event on his X account.
Toyota launched six NASCAR racing cars and drivers Jimmie Johnson, John Hunter Nemechek and Kamui Kobayashi.
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Toyoda-san, also wearing a Trump-Vance 2024 election T-shirt, did not criticize the tariffs, which many automakers blame for the negative impact on profitability.
“I’m not here to argue whether tariffs are good or bad. Every national leader wants to protect their own auto industry,” Toyoda-san said.
“We’re looking for ways to make plans a win for everyone. The people we want most to be winners are our customers.”
The Trump administration initially imposed a 27.5 percent tariff on Japanese car imports, but then reduced it to 15 percent.
Additionally, earlier this month, Toyota announced a $10 billion (A$15.4 billion) investment in its US operations and officially opened its new battery production plant in North Carolina.
Last month, the Trump administration said Toyota wanted to export U.S.-built vehicles to its home market.
“(Toyota) plans to export its U.S.-made vehicles to Japan and open its sales platform in Japan to U.S. automakers, as Japan has committed to accepting U.S.-made and U.S. safety-certified vehicles for sale in Japan without additional testing,” the statement said.
Toyota builds a range of vehicles in the United States, including the Corolla, Camry, Highlander (Kluger), Grand Highlander, Sienna, Tundra and Sequoia.
The Georgetown, Kentucky, plant where the Camry will be built will reportedly have a reserve capacity of 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles for export, and Kerry Creech, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, said it is exploring exporting the sedan to Japan.
Toyota recently discontinued the Camry in its home market, leaving a gap in its lineup between the Corolla and the Crown.
Mr Creech has reportedly confirmed that the factory does not yet have orders to start producing right-hand drive Camrys for export. However, if these orders come in, the plant can convert the lines in less than six months.
“It’s not difficult. It just takes a little more space,” he said of export production.
This would be far from the first time a Japanese automaker has exported U.S.-built vehicles to its home market.
Honda was the first manufacturer to export coupe versions of its Accord from the United States to Japan in the 1980s and exported the fifth-generation Accord station wagon in the 1990s.
Around the same time, Mitsubishi also exported its US-built Eclipse coupe and convertible to Japan.
Toyota has not only exported US-built vehicles to Japan, but also the Camry. The first “wide-body” Camry – the XV10 – was exported to Japan as a coupe and station wagon as the Scepter.
Even stranger things happened, such as when Toyota sold the US-built Chevrolet Cavalier in Japan from 1996 to 2000 – again an attempt to appease the US government, supported by General Motors, with which the automaker had a partnership at the time.
At the time, the U.S. government accused Japan of having a closed auto market that automakers couldn’t crack, while Japanese automakers like Toyota were enjoying phenomenal success in the U.S.
“Together with the vehicle itself, the Toyota Cavalier project brings a valuable new impetus to Japan-U.S. labor relations,” Toyota said at the time.
“As an import from the US, the car also helps promote a more international market in Japan.”
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