Toyota said to be talking to GM about making Prius in U.S.

[DainBramaged]

Japan's Toyota is in talks with General Motors about producing the hybrid Prius at their joint production venture in California, a newspaper today.

If they reach an agreement, it would be the first time that the Prius -- the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle -- is made in the United States, the Tokyo Shimbun said, without naming sources.

Toyota may produce Prius cars at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), a venture established by the two groups in 1984 that currently makes Toyota Corolla, Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Matrix, and Pontiac Vibe vehicles, it said.

The Japanese company plans to ship key components from Japan and assemble them at the venture in Fremont, Calif., where demand for environmentally friendly cars is high, the newspaper said. ( Because it is cheaper for them to actually make it here now than just importing them because they don't trust the American plants to build them! AND, they are building the new battery factory in Japan instead of building it here, which is just dumb!)

A Toyota spokesman in Tokyo declined to comment on the report, saying: "As usual, we don't comment on the details of negotiations, but nothing has been decided yet on the reported NUMMI case." (What a lying sack of shit!)

Toyota aims to sell at least 1 million hybrid vehicles a year from the early 2010s. It currently produces the Prius in Japan and China.

The automaker said this month sales of the Prius had topped one million vehicles since the launch in Japan in 1997, followed by North America, Europe and elsewhere in 2000.

Maybe this is the fastest way for GM to get a hybrid by licensing the vehicle from Toyota instead of building cars just for them to sell here, which was stupid to begin with!

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http://www.autonews.com/article/20080530/COPY01/519461363/1186

[tinrobot]

1. Wasn't the Geo Prizm a rebranded Toyota Corolla?

Perhaps GM could call it the Geo Priuz.

[madrchsod]

2. geo`s were toyota`s and south korean

i had a 93 metro which was a great car but the structure the front suspension was attached to rotted away...someone forgot to put in drain holes...

[LTR]

4. The Prizm and Corolla were the same car

Some slight differences.

I've owned both.

Currently, the NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA produces the Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe, which are basically identical cars.

[lectrobyte]

3. The Camry hybrids are built in Kentucky