In a bid to better utilize factory capacity and take advantage of favorable exchange rates, Toyota announced this week that it plans to export more vehicles from the United States.
Toyota currently exports a small number of U.S.-made vehicles outside of the NAFTA zone, but hopes to boost those numbers in the coming years. Toyota says it wants to export more vehicles than its Detroit rivals.
“We are looking for bigger export opportunities,” said Yoshimi Inaba, CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. and Toyota Motor North America. “It is in our interest to export, to help the U.S. economy and to help better utilize our capacity and also take advantage of today’s yen.”
He added: “We want to do better than the [Detroit] Three. We want to be No. 1.”
Toyota makes more vehicles in Japan than any other automaker, which is hurting the automaker’s bottom line. The value of the yen has been steadily increasing over the last several months, eroding Toyota’s profits in other global markets.
The dollar, on the other hand, is relatively weak, meaning Toyota could turn a larger profit from exporting vehicles made in the United States. Toyota exported about 16,700 vehicles to non-NAFTA regions during the first 10 months of 2011, but the automaker hasn’t announced any specific export targets under its new plan.
Toyota, which operates at five factories in the U.S., currently exports its Tundra, Tacoma, Camry, Sienna, Sequoia, Venza and Avalon models. Despite the boost in U.S. exports, Toyota says Japanese production levels won’t be affected.
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1.’Toyota aims to…’ view
