Toyota Ramps Up Exports. From Europe and America
Toyota started shipping French-made Yaris compact cars to customers in North America for the first time this month . Last year, Toyota expressed intentions to do so and said it would be around 25,000 units per year.
The Yaris is made at Toyota’s Onnaing-Valenciennes plant in France, from where it is shipped to the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Quebec accounting for 65% of Yaris’ Canadian sales, and with this, “a warm welcome will be assured for this ‘Made in France’ vehicle,” Seiji Ichii, CEO of Toyota Canada, said.
The Yaris accounted for nearly 22 percent of Toyota’s total European sales in 2012, with 182,841 vehicles, Toyota told Reuters.
When you think Toyota, you think export from Japan, but this is changing. This year, Toyota will ship U.S.-made Venza to Russia and China, said The Nikkei [sub].
Toyota will ship 4,000 Venza to Russia, 1,000 to Ukraine, and “several thousand” to China. By 2014, Toyota expects to be exporting 150,000 vehicles a year from the U.S., 20 percent more than in 2012.
In December, TTAC reported that transplants export cars in surprising numbers. BMW exported 70 percent of the 276,000 cars it built 2011 in Spartanburg, SC, helping South Carolina overtake Michigan as the No. 1 exporter of automobiles. Mercedes-Benz exports half of its cars made at its Birmingham, Ala. plant to countries outside NAFTA. Honda wants to become a net exporter of American made vehicles.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Pardon me Messieurs, but I would much prefer an Japanese-made Yaris, so if I could not find a new one built there, it would be a used one for me, Merci, just the same!
This is simply a function of the strength of the Yen. Ever since the GFC the Yen has been incredibly strong, such that none of the Japanese car companies are making any money by manufacturing in Japan and selling elsewhere. the BOJ is working as hard as it can to deflate the Yen, but all sorts of Japanese companies are scrambling to re-locate manufacturing elsewhere.
Brings up a question about the long-term future of the Prius C. Shipping those over from Japan can't be terribly profitable, and at some point it may make more sense to send over French-built Yaris hybrids instead.
Great, send me the Yaris five door liftback with the D4D turbo diesel and manual transmission I drove in France. So much fun wife called it puff the magic Yaris.