Toyota may build Prius at GM plant
May 31, 2008 by David Twomey
Toyota is reported to be in talks with General Motors in the US about a plan to build the hybrid Prius at a joint production facility in California.
According to reports in Tokyo published by the respected Tokyo Shimbun newspaper the unlikely bedfellows could strike a deal to build the Prius for the first time outside Japan and China.
The Tokyo Shimbun said, without naming sources, that if the two companies reached an agreement, it would be the first time that the Prius, the world’s first mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid vehicle, was made in the United States.
Toyota may produce Prius cars at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), a venture established by the two groups in 1984 that currently makes the Toyota Corolla, Tacoma and Matrix plus the Pontiac Vibe, it said.
The Japanese company plans to ship key components from Japan and assemble them at the venture in Fremont, Calif., where demand for environmentally friendly cars is high, the newspaper said.
A Toyota spokesman in Tokyo declined to comment on the report, saying: “As usual, we don’t comment on the details of negotiations, but nothing has been decided yet on the reported NUMMI case.”
Toyota aims to sell at least 1 million hybrid vehicles a year from about 2010.It currently produces the Prius in Japan and China.
The carmaker said this month sales of the Prius had topped one million vehicles since the launch in Japan in 1997, followed by North America, Europe and elsewhere in 2000.
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Sounds like Peter J Wilso is the real kid going to bed as early as he did. He was probably sprung online by his mum instead of being in bed at 8.30pm like he is suppossed to. I quite often do 4am starts with shiftwork and I am not even in bed that early. I have a sleep after work to make up on lack of sleep.
Regarding the turbo diesel in the Commodore, it is not a recent announcement, it was known last year that the Commodore was Going to get a 3.0ltr VM Montesi Turbo diesel V6. The recent comments were mostly discussing Hybrid while just reafirming the Diesel in the Commodore.
YEAH HAA … Toyota takes straight wins in all 3 tiers of NASCAR this weekend in Dover … YOU BLOODY BEAUTY !!
Friday – Scott Speed for Red Bull Racing (Toyota Tundra) won the Craftsmans Truck Series. That gives Toyota a total of 4 wins from 7 races this year so far and currently leading of the manufactuers points.
Saturday – Denny Hamlin for Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota Camry) won the Nationwide Series (2nd Tier) making it 9 wins for Joe Gibbs but a total of 10 wins from 14 races this year so far for Toyota. The BIG T comfortably leading the manufacters points.
Sunday – Kyle Busch for Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota Camry) won the Sprint Series (1st tier) making that 5 wins from 13 races so far this year while Ford and GM have won 3 each followed by Dodge with 2. Toyota also (albiet narrowly) leading the charge in manufactuers points in the Sprint series giving them a current clean sweep in ‘The NASCAR Series’.
Better still, of the 3 tiers combined – Sprint, Nationwide and Craftsman Trucks – a total of 34 races have been completed so far for the 2008 season with Toyota winning 19 of those races alone. The other 15 wins are shared between Chevy, Ford and Dodge.
OH WHAT A FEELING … TOYOTA !!
Sunday -
being a control series nascar, where regardless of what manufacturer you use the actual cars are identical, the only difference being the engine, which are built to identical specification anyway, the wins are a credit to the teams, not so much toyota who really only “sponsor” the winning cars.
Unlike F1 on the other hand, where the manufacturer actually makes the cars, how does toyota do in that again? oh right… oh well they did do well in rallying! Pity they abandoned rallying to chase F1, gee what a successful idea that one was!
Andrew M – not 100% when you say that holden’s next lot of small cars will not be opel derived. Although they will be built in korea by daewoo, and they styling will be done there too, the actual cars themselfs will be built of opel platforms, with opel engines and gearboxes. So you could more or less say that the cars will be built by daewoo, but developed by opel. Not exactly the worst situation in the world because opel develop a good product, and daewoo are good at building cars to a low price, which means the products will be more price competitive in australia thanks to daewoo, whilst still being a good quality product thanks to opel.
Something people have to remember tho is that todays daewoo is very different to the old daewoo. Basically the name is the only thing that is the same, since GM has taken over they are basically an entirely new company
its a similar situation to skoda really, skoda use to have a name worse then daewoo even in europe, their cars where stupendisly bad, but since VW have taken over, they are now a well respected brand. The tansformation of Daewoo under GM is a near identical situation to skoda’s under VW
Richo – you are absolutely and completely WRONG.
Engines, chassis’s and a fair chunk of components are manufactuer designed, engineered and manufactured.
The Toyota’s run a Toyota / TRD USA engine, nestled on a modified 2008 Toyota Camry Chassis with many componets such as cooling systems, fuel tanks, steering and power steering assemblies and so forth all manufactuer related.
At the start of the 2008 season, Joe Gibbs Racing had fuel pick up problems when running near empty and power steering reliability issues which had to be redesigned / fixed by Toyota / TRD USA.
Joe Gibbs Racing has sense passed comment about how pleased they were with regards to Toyota’s / TRD USA’s response nad handling of the matter.
NASCAR is very much Team, Manufactuer and Driver orientated and any thought otherwise is pure rot !!
Mate you have no idea about NASCAR. I have followed the sport for alot longer then you have by the sounds of it. NASCAR is team and driver orientated, the manufacturers basically just pay the bills. NASCARS are specially designed space frame chasssis with specially designed body panels. The only thing the manufacturer actually makes is the engines, which are built to extreemly tight regulations and are extensively modified by the teams anyway. Its basicaly only the block and the heads which toyota actually make, the internals are all done by the teams.
Have a close look at the cars and you will see that they don’t even look remotely like the road cars, thats because unlike V8supercar in australia where the cars are heavily (HEAVILY) modified road cars, NASCAR are fully space frame race engineered cars, the manufactuers just sponsor them.
Go do some research on the Car of Tomorrow, you’ll see how the basis of the entire project was to make sure the cars where IDENTICAL accross all teams and all manufactuers.
Sorry fan of toyota motorsport, but you couldn’t be ANY further from the truth with your comments. NASCAR’s bare absolutely no similarities with road cars whatsoever, they are 100% full racecars
FI ……..the epitome of Motor racing Championship results in the Championship currently.
01 Ferrari 69
02 McLaren-Mercedes 53
03 BMW Sauber 52
04 Williams-Toyota 15
05 Red Bull-Renault 15
06 Toyota 9
07 Renault 9
08 STR-Ferrari 6
09 Honda 6
10 Force India-Ferrari 0
hahaha…seems Williams can make them better than Toyota…does this mean Toyotas gone next year….I guess so.They said if they had ANOTHER BAD year headquarters would pull the pin!
Back on the Prius thing………TP says
I have no problems with this venture. GM can put it together… its the quality of parts and engineering that makes Toyotas reliable, not the smallest part of the whole thing (whacking it together is a highly controlled production line)
Its the quality of the parts ect not the production line…..pfffttt tell Holden that with them watching Daewoo factories!
Of course the quality control makes a difference at assembly,and obviously Toyota think that GM are up to the job even though Dingo doesn’t think so,then again he doesn’t or isn’t actually Toyota,but he thinks he is!
the thought that toyota’s nascar was actually a modified 2008 camry road car.. that is just too funny, not even close, you just lost 100% of your credibility fan of toyota motorsport, you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried!
Richo,
i was of the understanding that Daewoo was designing their new breed themselves.
ill have to double check where i found that info from.
either way its the cheap parts and labour that has earnt daewoo the bad reputation, not poor engineering efforts.
you cant honestly tell me that the current barina is any different to the daewoo Matiz of the days when Daewoo traded as their own nameplate.
but in having had a little pay out session, i do feel that the new gen daewoos to come through will be a hell of a lot better. once they have flushed the system of the old “stock/designs” (in search for a better word), i have little doubt that the next gen will be of the same standard as what hyundai has developed.
i have faith that the daewoo venture will eventually produce decent vehicles, but will it be too late before holdens small car reputation is totally ruined?
i mean how long does it take before small holdens are avoided by default regardless of improvements or not?
hhhmmmmmm, ill have to check that though, i thought daewoo was more than just manufacturing the new small car gen.
but hey i respect what you say because you dont commonly spew rubbish like others.
i dont even know where i found that now………….
ha ha ha ha yeah that manufacturers designing chassis’s and the whole kit in nascar was pretty funny.
looks like some one has just jumped on the Nascar bandwagon.
perhaps toyota was claiming they are doing all that on their site or something????
just like they were claiming the targa rally lead, and claiming the prius to be more enviro friendly…..
both of those claims they had to retract remember???
Richo – WRONG !!
i strongly suggest you to recap your details because you obviously exhibit limited knolewdge about the sport.
Engines, chassis’s (not shell) and many components such as cooling, steering racks / pump assemblies and so forth are manufactuer specific bar several items of course.
Racing packages are manufactuer supplied and supported while the cars are assembled, tuned and prepared by the teams.
The predomiate reason for ‘Car Of Tomorrow’ came about to make the machines / NASCAR racing safer !!
It is infact your knowledge about this event that is limited and distant from the truth.
That said, i have never stated on a single occassion about NASCAR even being remotely similar to production / road going cars because they are not … far from it !!
However, the platform of Toyota’s NASCAR is based on a modified Camry chassis (2008) but that’s exactly were the similarities end.
Correct me if i am wrong but motorsport is about expressing engineering talent wether it be V8 Super Cars, Rally Racing, NASCAR, F1, production and so forth …
Fan Person – as stated above, i have said absolutely nothing about NASCAR’s are modified road going versions and it would be absloutely stupid the think otherwise, they are specifically engineered race cars … PERIOD !!
However, the Toyota NASCAR platform is based on a modified Toyota chassis (not shell) and that’s exactly were the similiarities end. Engines and many other components as mentioned are manufactuer specific aswell but not related to production cars.
Andrew M, to clarify, Daewoo’s next wave of cars will be “based on” opel platforms, however they will obviously do their own development, ie unique exteriors and interiors, different suspension tuning etc. Basically think about how a Skoda Octavia differs from a VW Jetta and you’ll be more or less on the mark.
I agree with your comments about the existing Daewoo stock, yes the barina and viva models where more or less updated variants of the existing daewoo kalos and lacetti. Holden (who did the mods for GM to turn the exisitng daewoo products into something halfway acceptable) did their best to make the barina and viva passable, but you can only do so much with a bad car. The next wave however will be of equal quality to the opel products for sure. But i agree that holden jumped into the daewoos a good 3 or 4 years too early!
In other sporting news Mika Winkelhock def Yani Kardon in the Norwegian Curling Championship final
Richo – you stated that you have followed the sport for many years …
Lets test you knowledge
1. During the 2007 season, what Team (not manufactuer)was the most competitive … ??
2. During the 2007 / 2008 off-season, Joe Gibbs Racing switched from Chevy to Toyota. Why – in detail … ??
3. What Ford Team is currently the most dominate of all Ford Teams … ???
4. Which Team Owner was arguably the most vocal against Toyota entering NASCAR … ??
5. Which of these drivers is slated to be departing Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of 2009 – Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin or Tony Stewart … ??
6. An easy one for ‘ya … what is the capacity of the NASCAR engines … ??
Around and around and around………who cares!!!!
I agree Realcars! NASCAR is just a ring that you go around and around and it gets so BORING! WHO CARES! The only good part is gigantic crashes! :)
Boy Wonder Says:
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
In other sporting news Mika Winkelhock def Yani Kardon in the Norwegian Curling Championship final
hahaha……….yep thats as interesting as Toyota in Nascar…or even Nascar for that matter………
Realcars you said it around and around. How Toybota doing in F1?
Not too good…….never mind that will give them more money to perhaps sponsor someone in the 2009 Curling Comp !
Worlds most boring cars it sounds like you havent ever been or at least seen a production line in your life. Its a highly controlled enivironment, if GM produce the Prius you can bet that the processes in place will be the same as for any Toyota. All they are doing is borrowoing the plant & equipment to put it together.
Toyotas .The Worlds Most Boring Cars, sorry but I would not call every toyota boring. What abouth the 200series Land Cruiser? No! because thats one of toyota’s best cars and its a awesome 4×4! But……………..there are boring toyota’s like the Prius and Camry is the only ones I can think of.
Toyota sell boring cars? The Aurion is the most powerful vehicle in its class. If thats boring, then what are Commodore and Falcon!? Unfortunately some people are stuck in a time warp, Toyota are changing their image very quickly…. this aint the 90s anymore.
are you serious fan of? sif i feel any need at all to prove myself to you! you stated the toyota nascar is built off a modified camry chassis which simply isn’t true, not even close. Yes there are some (extreemly) minor differences between the makes in nascar but its nothing to do with being specific to the camry, there is nothing even reomotely camry in the toyota NASCAR. Go find something else to do other then getting fired up on the internet
Good words Richo, good words! :D
TP: Theyre 2 different classes.
Aurion: Large [Family] Sized Front Wheel Drive Sedan -
Falcon and Commodore: Large [Family] Sized Rear Wheel Drive Sedan.. Therefore; you can’t really compare the two as the power is delivered differently which would influence the way the car handles etc..like Torque Steer. It’s like comparing an AWD WRX or Evo to a Prius or a Yaris to a Koenisiegg
Boy, the majority of people dont care if its FWD/AWD/RWD, the fact is its a 6er and a large car leaves it in the same category.
Only wannabe Daddy racers would buy a standard Commodore/Falcon/Aurion for performance means.
TP,
yes technically the Aurion does have the higher power output figure,
but it is a long way from being the gruntiest most powerfull overall vehicle (if thats a properly strung sentence??ha ha ha)
i suppose the aurion is exciting just like the theme park rides in thinking the thing wont turn the corners due to torque steer
Richo,
ok mate that sounds a bit better that you clarify that they will only be throwing them the blue print to the chassis or what ever.
i still dont agree that holden has really transformed the daewoos though. check them out side by side and the lanos and Viva are pretty much identical and the barina Identical to a Matiz.
the average punter wouldnt pick it, even if you left the badges on.
But it was silly for Toyota to say “We are the biggest aussie and powerful six aussie car” but in a FWD, its silly. I bet it turned alot of buyers a way and headed to falcon or Commodore. Sure there got the power but not the brains!
Duck,
that doesnt make sense.
I agree duck, a RWD or even a AWD config would be better but I havent had problems applying the power to the wheels, but then again im on decent 225 tyres and hardly any torque steer at all, even the TRD Aurion does good for its mediocre segmented self.
Andrew……why are you here.Top Gear is on!New episodes…
Richo – i really do strongly suggest you do some research because FACT IS … Toyota NASCARS ‘ARE’ based on a modified Camry Chassis (not shell) not to mention how many times i have mentioned no other similarities exsist.
Do you even comprehend or do you live in la, la, land with the rest of the fairies.
And here is another reason why i know … because i am a subcribed member of Joe Gibs Racing and recieve weekly bulletins (email)not just about racing but about the team, people and the cars.
SAY AGAIN … TOYOTA ENGINE, TOYOTA CHASSIS AND A BULK OF TOYOTA COMPONENTS (but not all components particularly electrical and safety hardware including brakes, roll cage, seats, harnesses and so forth)
And you call yourself a NASCAR fan … yeah – what eva.
Better still, you couldn’t even answer a single question … PATHETIC !!
Actually, i really thought you might have been able to answer the last one for me atleast but not even that.
I tell you what – i will be nice and give you some time to google the info and get back to me otherwise i will just simply answer them for you.
NASCAR fan your say … fairdinkum !!
Lucky arent you BM?
Andrew M, how does that not make sense?
I meant…………………”We are the biggest and most powerful aussie six in the class” (By Toyota).
Does that help Andrew M?
Understand a bit better now?
Richo you have been fried.
how did you not know that the camry Nascar runs the identical FWD chassis to that of the road going version?
snigger, snigger at you Richo.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
TP Says: June 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Toyota sell boring cars? The Aurion is the most powerful vehicle in its class. If thats boring, then what are Commodore and Falcon!? Unfortunately some people are stuck in a time warp, Toyota are changing their image very quickly…. this aint the 90s anymore.
NM response…..MR2 – gone, Celica GT4 – gone, passion and stunning style gone! Boring…………2008 style. Your right TP; you really need to step outside Toyota bubbleworld
Andrew M – i didn’t mean to say holden transformed the barina and viva, they are indeed extreemly similar to the daewoo models, mainly because it would have simply been too expensive to engineer any significant changes into them. All i meant to say was that they had upgraded them, similar to a mid-life update, they changed the suspension a bit, dialed in a little better NVH, changed some of the interior plastics and so forth in an attempt to lift quality. Still fairly bad cars no doubt, but they are noticably better then the daewoo versions, only because they where pathetic. The holden versions are just plain bad, but atleast not pathetic (mostly)
Fan of toyota, sorry mate but not even the bare chassis (i knew what you where talkin about dude) is based on the camry. NOTHING in the car is based on the camry, nothing at all. Some parts are made by toyota TRD, no question, but they are not modified road car components, they are all specially designed race car components. The chassis itself you speak of is a fully space frame constructed chassis which does not bare even REMOTE similarities to the road going versions from the respective manufacturers. Check the facts, the wheelbases, lengths, front and rear overhangs, nothing is even remotely like on the road car, they don’t share the floor pan, they dont share either front or rear chassis rails, they dont share sub frames, they do not share a single thing!
Sorry but on this point you are completely, 100% WRONG. Toyota makes the engines (although the teams extensively modify them) and toyota also make specific components for the cars, however these components are especially designed race components, again not baring even the remotest similarity to the road cars, they simply couldnt! Nascar is such a specific form of racing that absolutely no road car components would be able to stand up to the test of nascar racing.
Time to accept your wrong and go and sit down in the corner. And face the wall!
Thanks for enlightening us once and for all, Richo.
NUMMI is not new at all….
GM gave up on the plant… told Toyota… “good luck with the workers”… Toyota introduced TPS…. workers happy.. production good…
now, GM and Toyota makes 2-3 cars there…. I had a choice to visit it, but all the way in the west coast…
Richo – how many times have i said this now … PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ‘IN FULL’ – i know no similarities exsist between NASCAR and road going cars except the chassis that are extensively modified to confirm with standards and that today is ‘COT’ – i have always said that … am i wrong – NO !!
Wether it be F1, NASCAR, WRC, V8 Super Cars or even production car racing… motorsport is about expressing engineering talent.
Wether it be Chevy, Ford, Dodge or Toyota – the manufactuers supply the ‘racing package’ which are assembled, tuned and prepared for racing by the teams.
Ongoing support, technical assistance and development remain in partnership with the respective manufactuers.
Engine rebuilds are the responsibility of the teams which utilise manufactuer specifc racing components were specified while ongoing development remain in partnership between the Teams and Manufactuer as i just mentioned.
Toyota has satisfied all requirements to participate in NASCAR as a manufacter so any critism towards Toyota can be equally directed to Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge.
That said, Toyota is arguably the most dominate manufactuer in NASCAR at present beating the American trio at the thier own game on thier own soil … ooch !!
Oh yeah … tell me – were can i buy a new pushrod V8 Falcon. I am sure you are aware what i am getting at.
Ford are planning to have a new pushrod V8 in the Next Generation Falcon due around the same time as the Falcon swithces over to a V6
Anf whilst a Pushrod mightn’t be as technologically advanced as the modern Twin/Quad Cam engine they are a lot easier to extract more power out of for less money/effort CAPA’s 1000Kw Holden Ute is proof of that… I’d love to see a 1000Kw Blown Aurion [which you can road register].
Or Prius; for that matter – as thats what this article is supposed to be about
So Richo, I was a passenger in the long weekend in an Aurion. I was chauffered to Albany and back. Does this car have any similarities to the Nancycar?
I know where I like to push a rod ………but my titanium retainers are preventing me from doing so!
Careful BM I don’t want you to blow a valve or a head gasket…. Not yet anyway
Golfy – what did you do wrong to deserve such harsh treatment like that?
Hes already bent my valves………..
I dont know what Ford are looking at in the future…..Ive heard lots of things.
Including a 5.0 ltr Cammer ,that could be fun,Roush -Yates currently supply a 410 kW 5.0 L Cammer known as the “Man-Racer” that they race. Anyway lets get back to the ever interesting Prius……….
heh heh, Wheelnut. Actually, it was quite nice back there with the armrest down. The ride smooths out and becomes the equivalent of the Golf at 110 kays too. There are worse ways to travel.