Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. It produces passenger cars, buses, sport utility vehicles (SUV’s), trucks, vans, and automobile parts. Toyota has automobile plants in a number of countries throughout the world. In addition, Toyota owns several other manufacturing companies and a variety of other businesses. Toyota’s headquarters are in Toyota City, Japan.
Well-known Toyota models include the Avalon, Camry, Celica, Corolla, Sequoia, and Tundra. Toyota also produces a line of luxury automobiles and sport utility vehicles under the trade name Lexus.
Toyota was founded in 1933, when Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd., set up a department to make automobiles. During the 1960’s, Toyota became Japan’s largest automobile manufacturer after it acquired several rival manufacturing firms. In 1997, Toyota became the first car manufacturer to mass-produce a hybrid car, the Prius. A hybrid car has all the components of an electric car plus another power source—in this case, a gasoline engine.
In 2014, Toyota agreed to pay a record $1.2 billion to settle a criminal investigation into safety violations at the Japanese auto giant. The United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation both launched investigations in 2007 into Toyota’s handling of defects with floor mats and acceleration pedals that caused its vehicles to speed up uncontrollably. The acceleration problem was linked to several deaths and led Toyota to recall more than 10 million vehicles in the United States and millions more worldwide. Prosecutors charged that Toyota deliberately covered up the problems. Toyota still faced a number of lawsuits from private citizens.
See also Hybrid car .
