Today’s article is all about the history of Toyota. if you are a Japanese vehicle lover, this article will fascinate you for sure. Also, we have found some rare information that you didn’t hear about this Asian vehicle superhouse. Let’s get started.
Toyota is a Japanese automobile company with its headquarters located in Toyota city, Japan. Kichiro Toyoda established the company on September 1, 1933. Toyota is a multinational manufacturer of automobiles, car spare parts, and so on. The company was incorporated on August 28, 1937.
As of 2017, Toyota had an employee payroll of about 364,445 worldwide. By December 2019, Toyota emerged as the tenth-largest company in the world by revenue. The 2020 unit sales stated that Toyota led Volkswagen Group to be the world’s largest automobile manufacturer.
As of 2012, Toyota has been producing about 10 million vehicles annually, and thus, it emerged as the first mobile company to manufacture over 10 million vehicles per year in the world. In July 2014, Toyota was incredibly rated as the largest company in Japan when marketing capitalization and revenue are considered.
Toyota pioneered automobile development and production in Japan. In 2012, Toyota produced its 200-millionth vehicle. Toyota vehicles are marketed worldwide.
The History of Toyota
Toyota was initially a division of Toyota industries when it was founded in 1937. The goal of Toyota Industries was to build and design automobiles. As a subset of Toyota Industries, Toyoda, in 1936, created the Type A engine as well as its first Toyota AA automobile. The early Toyota automobiles often used the part of American origin.
Toyota received an investment advantage during the Second World War. Toyota produced trucks for the Japanese army. Unfortunately, Japan was defeated in the war. Consequently, Japan became ingrained in economic hardship. Toyota continued with the production of trucks since there were not sufficient resources to produce passenger vehicles. Finally, in 1947, Toyota released a passenger vehicle of model Toyota SA. Toyota SA was a commercial passenger vehicle.
The Korean War made the United States Military order vehicles from Toyota, which saved Toyota from bankruptcy. Throughout this time, the Japanese vehicles were sold in the United States until Toyota in the 1950s sent the Land Cruiser and El Salvador to the United States as the first Japanese Vehicles to be sold and marketed in the United States.
Toyota never relented in upgrade and development and produced the Toyota Crown vehicle, which got exported to the United States. Toyota’s cars are affordable, and when the American automakers were facing sales challenges due to the high car price, Toyota had the opportunity to sell affordable models to automobile drivers. Toyota quickly became the second-largest car producer in the world by the 1980s.
Toyota’s Leadoff Models
Toyota Corolla remains one of Toyota’s exceptionally popular models of all time. It made the first appearance in 1966, and It quickly ranked one of the best-selling cars in the world. In addition, Toyota Corolla maintained the position of the best-selling car in the world for more than 30 years.
45 million Toyota Corollas sold worldwide as of 2016. The number is still increasing till the present time. However, its compact engine remains reliable over the years.
In 1976, Toyota reported that more than one million cars and trucks were sold in the United States alone. However, Toyota has not stopped growing with increasing revenue. In expansion, Toyota has reached the South East Asia and Latin America markets with a high sales record.
Toyota Lexus LS first appeared in 1989, but now, other models of it have been produced. Sedan, sport utility vehicle, and convertible models of the Toyota Lexus LS have been manufactured. Toyota started off portraying itself as an economy-friendly brand ready to make cars affordable for everybody to buy.
Toyota Success Story so far
Diversification is one of the strategies of Toyota that has kept them relevant in the world automobile market. Also, Toyota’s ability to diversify its offerings to consumers earned it the revenue of about $225 billion in 2012.
Toyota best General Motors in 2013 to be the #1 in the world sales of the automobile after being the #2 for a very long time. Toyota is not all about automibiles. The company is also prospering in the production of textile machine devices as well as doing well in automatic looms.
The history of Toyota: Logo and Branding
Toyota introduced its present logo firstly in 1989 to observe the company’s 50th anniversary as well as to differentiate the previous brands from the luxury Lexus brand released at that time. The logo made its first appearance on the Toyota Celsior manufactured in 1989. Very soon, the logo quickly gets global recognition. The Toyota logo has three ovals which combine to form the letter “T,” which stands for Toyota.
Moreover, two ovals overlap perpendicularly inside the larger oval to represent a cordial and mutual relationship between consumers and the company. Also, the larger oval surrounding the two smaller ovals depict the company’s worldwide expansion and unlimited capacity for the future.
The history of Toyota: Company Slogans
There are many slogans for Toyota, and each slogan is typical to a specific country.
Australia Slogan
Toyota Australia slogans include:
- “See How Many Cars Your Money Can Buy!” This slogan was said between 1979-1980.
- “Something Special. For You” was used between 1981-1983.
- “Oh, What A Feeling” is still in use since 1983.
The United States Toyota Slogan
- “You asked for it; You got it” was said between 1975-1979.
- “Oh, What A Feeling” was said from 1979-1993
- “Let’s Go Places” has been in use since 2012.
Toyota Strategy
Toyota is famous for five company values which have made them continue to be relevant. They include:
- Accepting challenge
- Improvement ongoing
- Checking what is happening
- Value of respect
- Teamwork
The Toyota Way forms the basic principles by which the company operates. In fact, these principles are now using several other multinational companies around the globe. The four Toyota Way include:
- Effective critical and evaluative thinking as fundamentals for decision-making in management.
- Devising a problem-solving method.
- People development as the sole way of making the organization valuable and relevant
- Collective and organization learning through unrepentant solving roots problem.
The Toyota Way comprises the Toyota entire Production System.
Toyota’s Activities
Aerospace
Toyota invested about US$67.2 million in the aerospace Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, which led to the manufacturing of the Mitsubishi Regional jet.
Philanthropy
Toyota is into several philanthropic activities in areas such as education, disaster relief, and so on. In the past, Toyota has worked directly with the American Red Cross organization, the Boys and Girls Club, among others.
In addition, Toyota has a USA Foundation that supports education in fields such as technology, engineering, and so on.
Want to know about the history of BMW? Read, here.
