Toyota Might Just Build Prius in California
Everyone's familiar with New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., right? Also known as NUMMI, the plant is a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. Why would the number one and number one two car makers team up? The old answer was that GM wanted to learn about Japanese "lean" manufacturing techniques and Toyota wanted to use the plant as a beachhead to establish North American production. The new answer? We'll leave it to the historians. That said, ToMoCo is thinking about maybe building their hot selling hybrid at NUMMI. Motor Authority is reporting that as American demand for the Prius remains high, the potential move is making a lot of sense to (some) Toyota suits. Like all of their corporate decisions, Toyota will be thinking long on hard on this one. Not mentioned in the article is that due to the weakness of the dollar, American workers can now be paid in chicken feed, or the equivalent there of. Hey, it's not all bad news. Maybe GM can learn a thing or two about what makes a Prius before the 2010 "launch" of the Chevy Volt.
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" since you’re talking about folks in Silicon Valley, if you want to scare us, talk about Cisco going belly up. Now, THAT would send a shockwave. GM? Nah." Wouldn't even be a topic of conversation amongst locals at the Starbucks in between protests.
So do I look at the VIN or at the panel gaps to determine where my Prius was assembled?
To EJ_San_Fran- Your comment about dumping Nummi and building a plant next to the border...is ridiculous and ignorant. Not only can the Baja plant not make their production, but the Nummi plant is essential for the economy in northern california. The quality that comes out of the plant is excellent, and the launch of the new corolla was the best at Nummi and better than all other plants building the same vehicle including Japan. As far as Ontario....there is a law which bans overtime which would limit their ability to produce the number of vehicles to meet the demand of our customers. Nummi has the best work force with training and experience and would be the best choice for the prius