Word: auto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Toyota's truck plan illustrates not only the company's relentless drive but also the risks that accompany it. The Tundra is part of a massive increase in Toyota's global production that will have far-reaching repercussions for the firm's future and that of the entire U.S. auto industry. The history of the car business shows that bigger isn't always better: Toyota's top two rivals, Ford and General Motors, have struggled to make money despite leading in market share. Toyota, in contrast, has reeled in cash by controlling costs and focusing on vehicle quality...
...question, Toyota's rise is the envy of the auto business. Since 1999, Toyota's U.S. market share has grown from 10.6% to 14.7%. The company makes America's best-selling sedan, the Camry. Its fuel-sipping hybrids, like the Prius, are the hottest cars on the market, commanding premiums and long waiting lists. The folks who snickered when Toyota launched a youth brand, Scion, by importing funky compacts from Japan like the xB, are racing to develop their own hipster cars. Toyota is doing a bang-up job financially, forecast to post profits of $10.8 billion...
Conquering the truck market won't be easy either, in part for cultural reasons. Pickup country is perhaps the last auto segment in which patriotic shopping habits prevail. Despite years of knocking at the market, Toyota sold just 107,000 Tundras in the U.S. last year, while Ford sold 916,000 F-Series trucks. Although Nissan and Honda have joined Toyota in the truck market, heavy investment has made Detroit's pickups more competitive than its cars. And Detroit can still count on the stubborn-guy factor. "I'd consider driving a Chevy, but that'd be about...
...first two months of this year. In fact, with a compounded annual revenue growth of 20% over the past five years, Hyundai has been the world's fastest-growing major automaker since 1999, according to Lehman Bros. Hyundai is "putting pressure on everybody," says Rob Hinchliffe, an auto analyst at UBS. Indeed, even Toyota vice chairman Fujio Cho has acknowledged the blur that is getting bigger in his rearview mirror. "Hyundai has quality and prices that have caught customers' attention, not to mention ours," he said at an auto conference in August...
...Hyundai's popular SUV. The highly automated factory, Hyundai's most modern, is a sea of frenetic welding and painting robots. Components are shuttled about by unmanned vehicles guided by electronic sensors in the floor. Chung says the factory gives Hyundai "firm ground as a global leader in the auto industry...