Toyota’s new U.S. plan: Trim trucks, add hybrids

Posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 1:54 PM EST.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda is rewriting his U.S. playbook to revive battered sales and a tattered image, the Automotive News reported.

The new strategy: review and possibly trim the lineup of full-frame trucks; skip mid-cycle vehicle enhancements to focus on bigger launches; introduce more hybrids to North America and give US. engineers a bigger voice in research and development, the trade paper said. Toyota executives who described the plan to Automotive News say the goal is to make a bigger splash with model launches and tailor cars to American demand. For starters, more research and development for North American vehicles will be moved to Toyota’s U.S. technical centers.

The moves come as the world’s top automaker swung from its biggest profit to its deepest loss in just one year, the publication said. After booking its first loss in seven decades in the past fiscal year, Toyota is bracing for more red ink in 2009. Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder, took the reins in June and promptly ordered top brass to orchestrate a back-to-basics overhaul of product development worldwide, the story said. (Automotive News)

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