Toyota Pondering U.S. Assembly of Prius Hybrid
By John O'Dell May 30, 2008With Toyota dealers once again demanding premiums for the company's Prius hybrid as panicky shoppers queue up to buy the gas-sipping gas-electric sedan, there's a report out of Tokyo that Toyota is talking about setting up its first U.S. assembly point for the car.
The newspaper Tokyo Shimbum is reporting that Toyota is in talks with General Motors Corp. to begin building the Prius at the two companies' joint-venture assembly plant, New United Motor Manufacturing, in the Northern California city of Fremont, near San Francisco.
Adding Prius production there could be beneficial because California is the largest single market for the hybrid and localized production – even with all the critical powertrain parts shipped over from Japan -- would reduce transportation and distribution costs, according to an analysis by Global Insight...
Toyota's official position on the report is that the company is always seeking to optimize production but that nothing in regard production of the Prius at the NUMMI plant has been decided. That seems to be confirmation, though, that the talks with GM are going on as Toyota didn’t flatly deny the accuracy of the report.
Although all Prius manufacturing is now done in Japan, the U.S. accounts for almost 60 percent of the model's market.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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