Toyota Sees Turnaround Ahead, Boosts U.S. Production

Washington DC June 4, 2009; The AIADA newsletter reported that Toyota will ramp up production of six of its best-selling models over the next three months, saying it sees a turnaround coming in the near future.

Automotive News reports that North American production will increase by 65,000 units over the previous plan for the three-month period as Toyota boosts output of its Camry, Corolla, Sienna, RAV4, Tacoma, and Tundra models.

The division's sales fell 39.5 percent in May compared with the same month last year, to 130,566 units. But May volume was 21.0 percent higher than in April. However, Toyota's retail sales were 25 percent higher in May than the month before.

Specifics for the production increase have not been released. They come as Toyota announced plans this week to begin leasing about 500 units of its plug-in hybrid cars in Japan, the United States, and Europe from the end of this year, mostly to local governments and corporate users.

According to Japan Today, the plug-in hybrid is based on Toyota's new low-cost Prius model and can be recharged from a household power supply grid. It will be the first Toyota hybrid to be powered by lithium ion batteries.

Current gasoline-electric hybrids are installed with nickel metal hydride batteries.