Toyota

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Toyota

Toyota, officially Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota is an automobile manufacturer from Japan4. The group's headquarters is located in the city of Toyota. In 2017, it is the world's leading automobile manufacturer in terms of financial performance, ahead of Volkswagen and Daimler. In 2014, Toyota sold 10.23 million units (+ 3% compared to 2013), the Group remains the world's leading manufacturer in terms of number of vehicles sold5. In 2017, Toyota has the highest valuation in the world in the automotive sector and the eighth in the world for all activities combined with 41.1 billion dollars (or 33.42 billion euros), according to the Forbes6 ranking. However, at the end of 2016, Volkswagen dethroned Toyota and became the world's leading automobile manufacturer in terms of number of units sold7. It is, according to the Forbes Global 2000, the tenth largest company in the world as of May 1, 20178. In June 2020, Tesla dethroned Toyota and became the world's leading automobile manufacturer by market capitalization9. In September 2023, Toyota will be the first automobile manufacturer in history to pass the mark of 300 million vehicles produced10.

Toyota is at the origin of an original production system, the Toyota production system, which gave birth to Toyotism, which should not be confused with Coyotism.

Kiichiro Toyoda
The brand name comes from the family name, Toyoda. This name was originally transliterated into hiragana by Toyoda. The field at the end of the word, in Japanese, is not pronounced ta, but da. This transcription is written in ten brush strokes, the name was deliberately changed to Toyota which is written in eight brush strokes, a lucky number 11,12,13.

Today the name of this company is not written in kanji or hiragana, but in katakana, usually reserved in Japanese writing for words of foreign origin except for slogans or advertising.

The town of Koromo being specialized in silk, during the Meiji and Taishō eras, the Toyota company was first of all a textile factory14. The decline in demand for raw silk in Japan and abroad led the city into a gradual decline. This decline encouraged Kiichiro Toyoda and his cousin, Eiji Toyoda, to seek industrial alternatives to the family's automatic loom business. This led to the founding of what later became Toyota Motor Corporation.

Toyota

It was during 1936 that the prototype of the “AA” model was completed. It will in fact be a true copy of the acronym next to the Chrysler Airflow. Equipped with a 3.4-liter 6-cylinder engine, this first model will sell 1,404 units. Its production ceased in 1943.

in August 28, 1937, Toyota Motor Company (which would become the current Toyota Motor Corporation) was established with Rizaburo Toyoda as its first president15.

Koromo, the town in which the group's headquarters is located, was renamed Toyota in 1959 in honor of the company.

In 1948, following poor sales and a lack of profitability, rather than lay off his employees en masse, he resigned from his position within the company. He died four years later, on March 27, 1952, aged 57.

In 1957, his cousin, Eiji Toyoda, became the head of Toyota, and oversaw its successful expansion around the world. He launched the luxury brand Lexus in 1987.

In the 1980s, Toyota collaborated with the military dictatorship in Brazil by transmitting information about the activities of the company's union activists. This information is used by the police to monitor, harass and arrest trade unionists in order to prevent the organization of strikes16.

In 1998, Toyota became the leading Japanese automobile manufacturer in Europe in terms of sales volume, surpassing its competitor Nissan17.

L’origine étymologique « Toyota » vient du nom de la famille « Toyoda ». Pour des raisons de coups de pinceaux dans la langue, le « da » a été transformé en « ta ». Pour commencer, Toyota a d’abord été une usine de textiles. Sauf que les résultats n’étant pas au rendez-vous, les deux cousins Toyoda, Eiji et Kiichiro ont dû chercher une nouvelle alternative industrielle. Ils créèrent la société Toyota Motor Corporation et sortirent en 1936 la toute première voiture Toyota « Type AA », une copie conforme de la marque « Chrysler ». En 1957, après la mort de Kiichiro Toyoda, Eiji Toyoda décide de développer la marque de luxe de Toyota et sort « Lexus ». Le Groupe ouvre également sa première usine européenne, à Onnaing, en France.

En 2007, après avoir passé des accords avec Daihatsu et Hino Trucks, le Groupe Toyota Motor Corporation fabrique 9,51 millions de véhicules, dépassant ainsi le constructeur automobile américain General Motors, qui détenait le record depuis 72 ans. En 2008, la marque Toyota lance son modèle « Prius », leader incontesté de l’hybride sur ce marché. Mais faute à la crise financière et pour la première fois de son histoire, elle est obligée d’annoncer un exercice 2008 déficitaire. En 2009, le Groupe Toyota reste le premier constructeur mondial. Depuis août 2017, la marque s’est alliée avec Mazda, afin d’ouvrir deux usines aux États-Unis, pour plus de 1,5 milliards de dollars.

En 2017, Toyota est le constructeur ayant vendu le plus de véhicules à travers le monde. Avec plus de 7 millions d’exemplaires, il dépasse largement Volkswagen et Ford. Du côté du marché de l’occasion, la marque reste également très présente avec plus de 665 000 véhicules en vente sur les différents sites en Europe.

Aujourd’hui nombreux sont les particuliers et les professionnels soucieux de ne pas se faire piéger lors de l’achat ou de la vente d’un véhicule d’occasion car plus de 10 000 personnes sont venues sur le site Autorigin pour vérifier l’historique d’un modèle Toyota.

Un code VIN commence par trois caractères spécifiques pour chaque marque, pour Toyota le code WMI est « VNK ». Complétez ses informations avec la fiche technique, accessible ici.