Everyone's familiar with New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., right? Also known as NUMMI, the plant is a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. Why would the number one and number one two car makers team up? The old answer was that GM wanted to learn about Japanese "lean" manufacturing techniques and Toyota wanted to use the plant as a beachhead to establish North American production. The new answer? We'll leave it to the historians. That said, ToMoCo is thinking about maybe building their hot selling hybrid at NUMMI. Motor Authority is reporting that as American demand for the Prius remains high, the potential move is making a lot of sense to (some) Toyota suits. Like all of their corporate decisions, Toyota will be thinking long on hard on this one. Not mentioned in the article is that due to the weakness of the dollar, American workers can now be paid in chicken feed, or the equivalent there of. Hey, it's not all bad news. Maybe GM can learn a thing or two about what makes a Prius before the 2010 "launch" of the Chevy Volt.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
It’s amazing the NUMMI plant still exists to begin with. The Bay Area is not exactly low cost territory.
They don’t manufacture cars in the middle of Manhattan either, do they?
Note to Toyota: dump NUMMI and GM and build a new factory next to the Mexican border (I’m not sure on which side).
NUMMI isn’t exactly Toyota’s best North American plant–it’s not quite as problematic as Georgetown/KY but if they want to launch a high-profile vehicle, Cambridge/ON is probably their best bet.
It may make better sense to build Prius outside of California IF a portion of the Prius cars to be sold in the US will continue to be manufactured in Japan.
Otherwise, it seems to make some sense to manufacture them in California, since California takes up approximately 25% of the US supply of Prius production. (APPROXIMATELY 25% I said – I don’t have figures in front of me).
Since I know from perusing the local Toyota website and looking at VIN’s, that Toyota sells some Japanese built, some Canadian built and some NUMMI built Corollas here in Michigan, I’d say it might work to build the Prius in Ontario.
Better yet, why not simply retool part of the new Texas pickempup plant for Prius production, which would mean a shorter trip to California for some of the cars, use up un-needed truck factory space with something which actually sells, and uses US dollars instead of more expensive Canadian dollars?
Jonny: Maybe GM can learn a thing or two about what makes a Prius before the 2010 “launch” of the Chevy Volt
I’m sure they took one (or more) apart back in 2003 when it came out.
I’m sure this is a temporary move. NUMMI’s overhead will go through the roof whenever the dollar comes back up.
California is a huge market for the Prius, so there is some logic in assembling them here. I’m sure GM would love the chance to look over Toyota’s shoulders on this one.
On Fantasy Island next week we will learn that Nummi also gets to build the Volt. Stay tuned.
I expect that over the next decade, hybrid technology or one kind or another will find it’s way into the majority of cars sold in the US.
The factory is down the street from me. It would make a lot of people in Silicon Valley and California happy if Toyota would produce Prii in our state, especially in a plant that was set up as a joint venture with a domestic manufacturer.
So I wonder if we will see a Pontiac or Chevrolet re badge of the Prius?
Assembling the Prius at NUMMI also makes sense from a supply chain perspective.
For quite some time most of the components (batteries, electric motors, transmission etc) will continue to be built in Japan. You can unload the ship and have a short hop from the port of Oakland south to NUMMI. It is a much longer supply chain to TX, TN or ON.
$5-6/gal diesel is making everyone reevaluate their supply chain. Saving $.10 per widget does not work if you pay .15 of additional freight.
After one or more of the D2.8 goes bust Toyota may gain some pickup market share.
hansbos:
The factory is down the street from me. It would make a lot of people in Silicon Valley and California happy if Toyota would produce Prii in our state, but those same people wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if Toyota’s roommate goes under and helps launch a second Great Depression, because socialism is the answer for everything anyway.
Fixed it for ya. feh
TomAnderson: wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if Toyota’s roommate goes under and helps launch a second Great Depression
By the time GM goes under (and I seriously doubt it will, contrary to the popular belief here), it would be after so much pain, suffering, and thinning of products, that it would barely register as a blip on the economic radar.
Besides, since you’re talking about folks in Silicon Valley, if you want to scare us, talk about Cisco going belly up. Now, THAT would send a shockwave. GM? Nah.
This is probably the most significant automotive news this year. It means Toyota plans to make the Prius the best selling car in the US. My guess is that Corolla/Matrix/Vibe production will move to Canada, the Tacoma will move to Mexico and the entire NUMMI plant will be used for the Prius.
Get ready for 400K plus units per year.
# Paul Niedermeyer :
May 30th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Jonny: Maybe GM can learn a thing or two about what makes a Prius before the 2010 “launch” of the Chevy Volt
I’m sure they took one (or more) apart back in 2003 when it came out.
Paul, I remember reading an article in Automobile, I think it was, where the writer visited GM’s reverse-engineering facility. They weren’t shy about admitting to dissecting Priuses and Corollas. They even mentioned how there was no way Toyota could make money from the Prius, by the very tight tolerances they saw in the drivetrain.
Right car wrong plant.
“long on hard”? Sounds just like me!
GM’s watching Toyota build the Corolla for over two decades doesn’t seem to have helped them improve their small car efforts much, eh?
” since you’re talking about folks in Silicon Valley, if you want to scare us, talk about Cisco going belly up. Now, THAT would send a shockwave. GM? Nah.”
Wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation amongst locals at the Starbucks in between protests.
Areitu: I remember reading an article in Automobile, I think it was, where the writer visited GM’s reverse-engineering facility. They weren’t shy about admitting to dissecting Priuses and Corollas. They even mentioned how there was no way Toyota could make money from the Prius, by the very tight tolerances they saw in the drivetrain.
I would have guessed that GM is CAPABLE of building a very tight-tolerance but either feels no need to build something small or is punishing those customers for buying small with lower quality vehicles.
Either way those scenarios does not make me want to buy a GM product. I’m a small car customer – take me seriously (like Honda) or forfeit my money.
So do I look at the VIN or at the panel gaps to determine where my Prius was assembled?
To EJ_San_Fran- Your comment about dumping Nummi and building a plant next to the border…is ridiculous and ignorant. Not only can the Baja plant not make their production, but the Nummi plant is essential for the economy in northern california. The quality that comes out of the plant is excellent, and the launch of the new corolla was the best at Nummi and better than all other plants building the same vehicle including Japan. As far as Ontario….there is a law which bans overtime which would limit their ability to produce the number of vehicles to meet the demand of our customers. Nummi has the best work force with training and experience and would be the best choice for the prius