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Toyota Expects to Be World's No. 1 Automaker Next Year
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Toyota employs 39,000 workers at six vehicle assembly plants in North America, including four in the United States. GM had 141,000 U.S. workers at the end of 2005, the latest date for which figures were available, compared with 464,000 in 1962.
The foreign companies pay comparable if slightly lower wages than the U.S. companies, but they do not have the expensive retiree health and pension benefits that General Motors says add $1,500 to the cost of each U.S.-made car. As the unionized sector of the industry shrinks, labor specialists said, the transplants will be under less pressure to pay wages comparable to those earned by union members.
Toyota said yesterday that it would build 9.4 million vehicles worldwide in 2007, 4 percent more than in 2006. Analysts estimate that GM's production will be 9.2 million vehicles this year. GM, which has 24.4 percent of the U.S. market, hasn't said how many vehicles it plans to make next year.
Some analysts said the race for supremacy isn't over, noting that GM is expanding in Russia, India and Thailand and that the lead could change again and again in coming years.
Brian Akre, a GM spokesman, said executives are focused on remaking GM into a more competitive, leaner company that can sustain profitability.
"We won't alter our North America turnaround plan or sacrifice our profitability for the sake of one superlative," Akre said.
Many of Toyota's top executives are U.S.-born, worked at U.S. auto companies and have roots in the Midwest. They have expressed concern for the U.S. companies' problems. But at the same time, they've poured on the pressure.
Jim Press, Toyota's U.S. chief executive, echoing company officials in Japan, said Toyota is following its own path and did not have GM in its crosshairs. He said Toyota would continue to expand manufacturing, research and design operations in United States.
He said Toyota's sales were powered in the U.S. by growing consumer demand for small cars and hybrid-powered sedans and sport-utility vehicles.
"We had the foresight to start hybrid development earlier than other companies," Press said. "This year we will sell more hybrids than Cadillac will sell cars."
