TOYOTA, Japan — Toyota’s Tsutsumi plant was abuzz with drills and other machinery Friday, with workers brought in from other, less busy plants to crank out the new Prius to keep up with bursting demand for the hybrid car.
But the Toyota Motor Corp. executive in charge of production said plans to open a U.S. plant to build the third-generation model of the top-selling hybrid were still on hold.
The Prius has been a rare bright spot not just for money-losing Toyota but also for the overall auto industry, hammered by the global slump and U.S. credit crunch.
Still, worries about the U.S. auto slump since the financial crisis hit last year were too great, Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said. A Prius plant in Blue Springs, Miss., had been scheduled to be up and running by 2010, but such plans were still frozen.
"I am extremely unhappy with the situation,” Uchiyamada said. "It all depends on how the economy recovers.”
The Prius symbolizes Toyota’s hopes for a turnaround after the world’s No. 1 automaker suffered its worst annual loss last fiscal year since its 1937 founding — and predicts more red ink this year.
Sales of hybrids are expected to grow not only in Japan but also in the U.S. because of President Barack Obama’s stringent mileage and emissions standards for 2016.
"Hybrids are going to be hot-sellers,” said Koji Endo, auto analyst with Credit Suisse in Tokyo.
Although GM and Ford Motor Co. will be pushing their own hybrids, they aren’t as financially strong as Toyota to develop hybrids, Endo said.
by the associated press
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