"For Japanese manufacturers their major components such as engines, transmissions are imported by ship from Asia – then assembled here in places like Georgetown, Kentucky – then they call them “American Madeâ€. It’s simply not true."
10-15 years ago that was true. Today, not so much.
Bodine Aluminum in Jackson, TN (founded in 1912 and became a Toyota subsidiary in 1990) pumps out nearly 1.5 million engine blocks for Toyota each year. The Bodine plants in Jackson and in Troy and St Louis, MO also produce aluminum cylinder heads, blocks and a host of other castings for Toyota, including more than a quarter million transmission housings.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia (TMMWV) produces more than 600,000 transmissions, including the gears, for Toyota.
Most of the engines and transmissions above are shipped directly to the Georgetown, KY and Princeton, IN plants.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama (TMMAL) is online to produce 130,000 4.0 liter V6 engines, 120,000 4.7 liter V8 engines, 150,000 new 5.7 liter V8 engines annually. The total investment is $490 million. February 2, 2007 marked the production of the first 5.7 liter V8 at the plant. TMMAL supplies V8 engines for the Tundra full-size pickup and Sequoia full-size sport utility vehicle produced in Indiana. The plant also supplies V6 engines for Tacoma pickups produced in California and Mexico as well as the Tundra. The new 5.7 liter V8 engines will be used for the all new Tundra built in San Antonio, Texas and Princeton, Indiana.
In 2006 Toyota produced 1,553,790 vehicles using 1,428,662 engines that were manufactured in the US using 100% US manufactured parts. The remaining 125,128 engines that were not made with 100% US parts were made with 75% US parts, 25% of the parts being imported from Mexico and Canada (in order to meet production schedules).
Beginning in 2007, the Subaru Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA) subsidiary of Toyota will begin producing the hybrid version of the Camry for the first time using primarily US-made parts.
The above information came directly out of a shareholder's report.
Toyota, Ford, GM, Honda and all the other large automakers are all global companies with shareholders all over the globe. But any car and the money is spread all over the place.
As for freight, Toyota has learned that the closer the parts manufacturing is to the selling point, the better they can control potential problems and make changes. Toyota (and other manufacturers) have had several instances where small, easily fixable, but critical defects in parts were delayed in their discovery due to weeks in transit from overseas. As a result, they are ramping up heavily to produce here, build here, sell here. Other Asian companies are beginning to do the same.
Toyota is clearly not US-based, yet the vehicles it sells here are, by and large, produced here. And the percentage of that is growing even higher each year. Can the same be said for the so-called US-based manufacturers? While it is true that US-based manufacturers (both of them) build more in the US than foreign-based manufacturers do, what constitutes US-based is becoming very blurred.
