Toyota Auto Body California
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| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | Jim Zehmer (president)[1] |
| Products | Auto parts |
Number of employees | 350 (2022) |
| Parent | Toyota Motor North America |
| Footnotes / references [2] | |
Toyota Auto Body California (TABC) is a manufacturing plant in Long Beach, California, located at 6375 North Paramount Boulevard. Established in 1972, TABC was the first Toyota plant in North America. A subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America, the plant occupies 30 acres (12 ha).
The plant produces sheet metal and aluminum components, weld subassemblies, steering columns, catalytic converters, and painted service parts for Toyota's North American manufacturing facilities, for export to Toyota's facilities in Japan, and for Tesla, along with producing catalytic converters and numerous past model service parts for Toyota Motor North America.
History
The plant was established to circumvent the chicken tax, a 25 percent tariff on light trucks imposed in 1964 by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on importation of U.S. chicken.[3] While the government said the tariff was meant to curtail importation of German-built Volkswagen Type 2s, other models were also impacted, including the Toyota Hilux (also known as the Toyota Pickup). Toyota found a tariff engineering loophole: they could import "chassis cab" configurations (which included the entire truck, less the truck bed) with only a 4% tariff.[4] When the trucks arrived in the United States, a truck bed would subsequently be attached to the chassis before being sent to dealers.
To enable this work, Toyota struck a deal in 1971 with Atlas Fabricators, which would produce the truck beds starting in November. The partnership was successful and, in February 1974, Toyota purchased the company and renamed it Long Beach Fabricators.[5] The plant was Toyota's first manufacturing investment in the United States.[6][7]
The company would change its name to Toyota Motor Manufacturing (USA) Inc. (TMM) in March 1980. The TMM name would later be used for Toyota's Kentucky assembly plant that would begin production in May 1988. On 6 June 1988, the California plant was renamed TABC, Inc. (Toyota Auto Body California), a nod to the company's Toyota Auto Body manufacturing subsidiary.[5]
Toyota would later say that TABC had a large role in building Toyota's pickup trucks into a major model in the U.S. on the same level as the Corolla and the Camry.[5] In 1984, Toyota would establish with GM a joint-venture vehicle manufacturing plant called NUMMI which would begin assembling complete Hilux trucks in the United States starting in 1991.
Between 2004 and 2008, TABC was the assembly location for the first, U.S.-produced Hino commercial truck.[8]
As of December 2020[update], the plant produces sheet metal and aluminum components, weld subassemblies, steering columns, catalytic converters, and painted service parts for Toyota's North American manufacturing facilities, for export to Toyota's facilities in Japan, and for Tesla, along with producing catalytic converters and numerous past model service parts for Toyota Motor North America.[9]
References
- ^ "TABC, Inc". Toyota Motor North America. 2022-03-22. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
- ^ "TABC, Inc., California". Toyota Motor North America (Press release). Archived from the original on 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
- ^ Dolan, Matthew (2009-09-23). "To Outfox the Chicken Tax, Ford Strips Its Own Vans". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2022-03-10. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
- ^ Ikenson, Daniel J. (2003-06-18). "Ending the 'Chicken War': The Case for Abolishing the 25 Percent Truck Tariff". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on 2021-04-19. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
- ^ a b c "Item 4. Expansion of Sales Networks in the United States". Toyota Motor Corporation. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
- ^ "Toyota's TABC Plant Celebrates 40 Years of Manufacturing in California". Toyota Motor North America (Press release). 2012-08-21. Archived from the original on 2021-06-04. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
- ^ Robes Meeks, Karen (2012-08-21). "Toyota celebrates 40th anniversary of Long Beach auto body factory". Daily Breeze. Archived from the original on 2021-06-03. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
- ^ "Toyota to close its area truck plant". Los Angeles Daily News. 2008-04-17. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
- ^ "2020 Toyota Operations by State" (PDF). Toyota Motor North America (Press release). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
External links
- Google (2022-04-20). "TABC" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
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Coordinates: 33°52′17″N 118°09′41″W / 33.8715°N 118.1615°W
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