Toyota Auto Body

Toyota Auto Body is a manufacturing subsidiary of the Toyota group based in Japan. It is headquartered in Kariya, Aichi and was established in 1945. The company has plants in the Mie and Aichi prefectures and other facilities around Japan and abroad.

Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd.
Toyota Auto Body
Native name
トヨタ車体株式会社
Toyota Shatai Kabushiki-gaisha
Formerly
Toyota Auto Body Industries Co., Ltd.
Subsidiary
IndustryAutomotive
PredecessorToyota's Kariya Plant auto body division
Founded31 August 1945
Headquarters
Kariya, Aichi
,
Japan
Key people
Keiji Masui (President)
ProductsCars, auto parts
Production output
About 619,000 vehicles[1] (2019)
Revenue ¥1,746.43 billion[note 1][2] (FY2018)
¥6.89 billion[2] (FY2018)
¥9.05 billion[2] (FY2018)
Total assets ¥523.35 billion[2] (FY2018)
Total equity ¥237.92 billion[2] (FY2018)
Number of employees
17,883[3] (March 2018, consolidated)
ParentToyota Motor Corporation
Subsidiaries
  • Gifu Auto Body Co., Ltd.
  • Toyota Auto Body Research and Development Co., Ltd.
  • Toyota Body Seiko Co., Ltd.
Websitewww.toyota-body.co.jp

The company was formed through a corporate spin-off from Toyota. In its early years, it produced auto bodies. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it centred on truck production, before slowly switching focus to light vehicles (mostly vans) from the late 1960s onwards. In the 2000s, it absorbed the vehicle manufacturing operations of sister companies Araco and Gifu Auto Body.

As part of Toyota, Toyota Auto Body developes and produces a range of minivans, SUVs, light commercial vehicles and auto parts.

History
Headquarters in Kariya, Japan

Toyota Auto Body was established on 31 August 1945 as a corporate spin-off of Toyota Motor Industry's Kariya plant[4][5] with the name Toyota Auto Body Industries (トヨタ車体工業, Toyota Shatai Kōgyō).[5][6] At first, it produced auto bodies for Toyota. In 1951, the company became the first Japanese manufacturer in producing a truck body made completely of steel.[4] In 1953, the company adopted its present name.[6][7] In January 1957, it opened an assembly facility in Kariya for mass-producing trucks.[8]

In the early 1960s, Toyota gave clear functions to some of its then itaku (subcontracting) companies: Toyota Auto Body was centred on producing trucks; Kanto Auto Works passenger vans and pickups; Arakawa Auto Body Land Cruisers and special vehicles.[9] In 1960, Toyota Auto Body produced 74,000 trucks (including large trucks, the Stout, the ToyoAce), an 87% of Toyota's overall truck production and a 48% of its total vehicle production. In 1964, truck production from Toyota Auto Body (large trucks, the Stout, the ToyoAce, the Dyna) rose to 116,000 trucks, comprising 90% of Toyota's truck production and 27% of all vehicles.[9]

In January 1964, Toyota Auto Body opened a second assembly facility in Kariya, the Fujimatsu plant,[10] which produced the first Japanese hard-top car during the 1960s,[4][11] the Corona Hard-top.[4] The company also became the first itaku in assembling mass-produced passenger cars. The production percentage of passenger cars and other light vehicles would increase for the company during the following years.[12] In the late 1960s, Toyota Auto Body led the development of a small van with a one-box design, similar to European ones at the time, but, according to former Toyota senior employee Akira Kawahara, something yet unseen in the Japanese industry.[13] In 1967, Toyota Auto Body began producing the van, named as HiAce. It became the most produced model from the company with more than 6 million units as of April 2017.[14] Toyota Auto Body would continue developing and producing one-box design vans.[15] In 1970, Toyota Auto Body production was 149,000 passenger cars and 142,000 commercial vehicles (trucks and buses),[12] although the actual percentage declined to 17.6% of Toyota's total vehicle production.[16]

In the 1970s, Toyota Auto Body was one of the first companies in using quality function deployment (QFD), paralleling the initial developments from Yoji Akao at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The rest of the Toyota group adopted the method in 1979. The improvements of Toyota Auto Body on QFD influenced Ford into adopting it.[17]

In 1992, the company established Toyota Body Seiko, an auto parts subsidiary.[18] In December 1993, Toyota Auto Body opened the van-focused Inabe plant.[19] By the mid-1990s, Toyota Auto Body ventured into the production of high-end one-box passenger vans derived from the HiAce. In 1995, it started producing the Granvia, a HiAce-based semi-bonneted van made to comply with European safety regulations. From the Granvia the company developed the Alphard which was launched in 2002.[20] In 2008, it introduced an Alphard twin vehicle, the Vellfire.[21]

In May 2001, Toyota announced it would consolidate all production of one-box Toyota-badged cars intended for the Japanese market into Toyota Auto Body by moving the assembly of the LiteAce/TownAce Noah and its successor (Noah) from Daihatsu.[22] In 2004, Toyota Auto Body incorporated the auto body and vehicle production businesses from Araco.[6] In 2005, the Kariya plant was repurposed for converting vehicles instead of producing trucks.[23] In the fiscal year ended March 2007, Toyota Auto Body achieved its largest production volume, with about 745,000 vehicles produced during the period.[24] In 2007, Gifu Auto Body became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Auto Body.[4][25]

In November 2018, Toyota announced it would transfer all van development to Toyota Auto Body.[26] In 2019, Toyota Auto Body announced it would produce the first Lexus-badged passenger van[20] at its Inabe plant,[27] the Lexus LM, a badge engineered Alphard, the second Lexus product coming from the company after the Land Cruiser-based Lexus LX[20] (the latter a legacy product from Araco).[28]

Toyota Auto Body was a public company until late 2011, when Toyota made it a wholly owned subsidiary and delisted its shares.[29][30]

Facilities
Fujimatsu plant

Toyota Auto Body plants are Fujimatsu (Kariya, Aichi), Inabe (Inabe, Mie), Yoshiwara (Toyota, Aichi), Kariya (Kariya, Aichi). There is a development centre in Toyota, Aichi (Kotobuki New Development Centre). The head offices are in Kariya, Aichi. Additional offices are located in Tokyo and Osaka.[31]

Gifu Auto Body headquarters and facilities are in Kakamigahara, Gifu.[32]

Toyota Auto Body Research and Development

Toyota Auto Body Research and Development (トヨタ車体研究所, Toyota Shatai Kenkyūjo) is Toyota Auto Body wholly owned research and development subsidiary. It is headquartered in Kirishima, Kagoshima and was established in 1990.[6]

Overseas subsidiaries

Toyota Auto Body has subsidiaries in Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, China and the United States.[33]

Products
A COMS

As of 2020 vehicles assembled by Toyota Auto Body include: the Alphard, the Vellfire the Voxy, the Noah, the Esquire, the Land Cruiser, the HiAce, the RegiusAce, the GranAce, the Coaster, the electric vehicle COMS, the Lexus LX570 and LM.[34]

Toyota Auto Body production by plant as of early 2020
PlantProducts
Fujimatsu (Honsha) plantVoxy, Noah, Esquire
Kariya plantCOMS, vehicle conversion
Inabe plantHiAce, GranAce, RegiusAce, Alphard, Vellfire, Lexus LM
Yoshiwara plantLand Cruiser 200, Land Cruiser 70, Lexus LX570
Kakamigahara (Honsha) plantHiAce, Coaster, vehicle conversion
Notes
Plants with blue background are directly controlled by Toyota Auto Body, plants with light blue background are directly controlled by Toyota Auto Body and formerly belonged to Araco, plants with light red background are indirectly controlled by Toyota Auto Body through its subsidiary Gifu Auto Body
Sources
[23][27][35][36][37][38][39][40]

Absorbed operations

Araco

Araco Corporation (アラコ株式会社, Arako Kabushiki-gaisha) was one of the first manufacturing subsidiaries of Toyota. It was established in 1946[6] (incorporated July 1947)[41] at Nagoya[42] by a former Toyota Industries sheet metal worker named Gihee Arakawa as Arakawa Sheet Metal Industries (荒川鈑金工業, Arakawa Bankin Kōgyō).[6] The company firstly made sheet metal work for Toyota, soon adding vehicle interior parts (including seats) and auto bodies.[43] In 1953, it started assembling the Toyota BJ,[44][45] and later the successive Land Cruisers.[43][46] The Arakawa-assembled Land Cruiser was the main export product from Toyota in the late 1950s and early 1960s (28% of all vehicle exports in the period 1956–1964).[41] In 1960, it entered into production the RK160B (Coaster).[44] The company opened two new plants around Toyota City during the 1960s: Kotobuki (1960) and Yoshiwara (1962).[10] It was renamed as Arakawa Auto Body Industries (荒川車体工業, Arakawa Shatai Kōgyō) in 1961, before adopting the Araco name in 1988.[6] In 1995, the company began assembling Lexus vehicles.[28][44] In 2004, Araco activities were split and the auto body and vehicle production operations became part of Toyota Auto Body. The vehicle interior business was merged into Toyota Boshoku.[6][8]

A different Toyota subsidiary established in 1974 as Kyoei Sangyo (協栄産業, Kyōei Sangyō) was renamed as Kyoei Araco in 2004 and as Araco in 2015. This Araco specialises on seats for Lexus vehicles.[47]

Gifu Auto Body
Gifu Auto Body facilities, pictured in 2017

Gifu Auto Body Co. Ltd. (岐阜車体工業株式会社, Gifu Shatai Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha)[48] is a Gifu-based vehicle manufacturer.[25] It was established in 1940 as a truck body manufacturer. In 1959, after receiving a big order of military vehicles from Toyota, it associated itself with the latter,[49] producing bodies for light trucks[49][50] such as the Dyna and the Stout.[51] In the 1960s, Gifu Auto Body hand-built the Land Cruiser FJ45V, a long wheelbase variant of the third-generation Land Cruiser.[52] In January 1996, Toyota launched a civilian version of the BXD10 military vehicle called BXD20 (Mega Cruiser), and it was assembled by Gifu Auto Body. Production ended in August 2001.[53][54]

By 2007, Gifu Auto Body was producing the HiAce and auto parts (pressed parts and truck seats).[25] That year, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Auto Body[4][25] through stock swap.[25] In July 2015, Gifu Auto Body transferred its auto parts business to Toyota Body Seiko in order to focus on commercial vehicle assembly.[55] In December 2016, Toyota Auto Body moved production of the Coaster from its Yoshiwara plant to Gifu Auto Body.[40]

2018 TLC Rally Dakar contender

Sports

An Araco team entered Land Cruisers into the Rally Dakar from 1995 onwards. In 2005, the team was renamed as Team Land Cruiser · Toyota Auto Body (TLC).[56] As of 2020, it achieved seven consecutive victories in the diesel production car class.[57]

Toyota Auto Body has two company teams participating in Japanese national sports championships: the volleyball team Toyota Auto Body Queenseis and the handball team Toyota Auto Body Brave Kings.[58]

As of 2020, Gifu Auto Body is sponsor of FC Gifu.[59]

Notes
  1. The FY2018 (Fiscal Year 2018) in this article is from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.
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References

Citations
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  3. "会社概要" [Company profile] (in Japanese). Toyota Auto Body. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  4. "トヨタ車体、創立65周年" [Toyota Auto Body, 65th anniversary of foundation] (in Japanese). Response.jp. 1 September 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  5. Jacobs 2015, p. 104.
  6. Tanaka 2015, p. 66.
  7. Jacobs 2015, p. 115.
  8. Jacobs 2015, p. 116.
  9. Shioji 1995, p. 25.
  10. Jacobs 2015, p. 108.
  11. Shiomi 1995, p. 47.
  12. Shioji 1995, p. 28.
  13. Kawahara 2012, pp. 48–49.
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  15. Kawahara 2012, p. 50.
  16. Shioji 1995, p. 20.
  17. ReVelle, Moran & Cox 1998, pp. 3–5.
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  28. Dawson 2011.
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  42. Dillon & Shingo 1985, p. 215.
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  50. Shiomi 1995, p. 35.
  51. Nishiguchi 1994, p. 105.
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Bibliography
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