My Old Kentucky Home: Lexus Production Moves to US

This past week Toyota announced that it will begin producing its Lexus luxury car in the United States for the first time. The company will invest over $500 million to move production of the Lexus ES 350 luxury sedan to its existing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. Until now the plant in Kentucky, Toyota’s oldest and largest in the United States, produced the flagship Toyota Camry, as well as the Avalon and Venza. The Lexus ES 350 shares underpinnings with the Camry and Avalon, making the transition somewhat easier. This aspect is just one of several strategic implications of the move of Lexus production to the United States.

While it’s parent is fully Japanese, Lexus is an American child, for many years the luxury car was available only in the United States. This focus on the American market led Lexus to the top of luxury car sales every year from 2000 to 2010. In recent years, however, Toyota has watched BMW and Mercedes Benz pass it in luxury car sales and showing little evidence of slowing down. In my opinion this factor played a role in Toyota finally deciding to move the production of Lexus to the United States. As the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, said, the company plans to “give regions greater autonomy to make the products their customers want.” By moving the production of the ES 350 to the United States, I believe Toyota will be able to more closely monitor how Lexus is doing compared to BMW and Mercedes Benz. The company can also make production changes more effectively and efficiently at its plant in Kentucky. This high involvement with its target consumers should aid Lexus as it tries to regain its spot as the top luxury car in the United States. The move of production also helps protect Toyota from the Japanese economy and possible disastrous production issues.

From an operations management viewpoint, I think that Toyota is much better off by moving the production of the Lexus to the United States. The ES 300 is essentially an American car, it is not nearly as popular in Japan as it is in the US, therefore it made little sense to have it produced half a world away from where it was being sold. There are no economic benefits since there is an exchange rate penalty for Japanese automakers. Additionally, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan had devastating effects on production. This disaster revealed just how vulnerable Toyota and other Japanese automakers are, and in my opinion, played a key role in Toyota moving the production of Lexus to the United States. By having all of it’s operations and production in one place, Toyota can become more efficient and continue being a leading automaker.

Do you think it was a good decision by Toyota to move the production of Lexus to the United States?

Will this lead other foreign carmakers to move to America and what affect will that have on the production of American cars?

 

Sources

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/toyota-investing-over-500m-launch-us-lexus-production-1B9519106

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/business/toyota-will-make-lexus-es-350-in-kentucky.html?_r=0

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-19/toyota-to-make-lexus-in-kentucky-amid-localization-push.html

 

2015 = First US Lexus Production Plant

Many people know that Lexus is the luxury brand that Toyota owns. The company is planning on opening a new production plant in 2015. The plant will be located in United States. Although, Toyota does have plants make Toyota brand cars, this will be the first US plant that Lexus will open. It will also be the very first time the Lexus ES will be produced outside of Japan. This is very interesting because most companies would look to go to countries with cheap labor and flexible labor laws. In the US, there are a lot of regulations that protect workers. What would cause Toyota to bring Lexus in the US?

Just as we learned in class, there are a couple reasons why companies would globalize. Some of the reasons are to reduce costs, improve their supply chain, and provide better goods and services.

It is reported that “[Lexus] will receive as much as $146.5 million in tax credits, significantly bringing down the overall cost of the investment. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Toyota would have to invest $531.2 million and add 570 full-time jobs in order to yield the full value of the package”. The tax credit is definitely one of the main reasons why Lexus would want to come relocate in America. This move will help reduce costs such as shipping the cars from overseas by improving their supply chain. Also it will help provide a better service for Lexus owners because the plant is not located domestically.

Not only does Lexus benefit from this new plant but so does the people of Kentucky. In order to be efficient and complete their goal of producing 50,000 per year, they will need to hire a lot more workers. This will create a lot of new jobs for the people of Kentucky. Everyone seems to be pleased with the move and there have been no ethical problems with it. Even the state governor said, “This is a great day for Toyota and for the commonwealth of Kentucky”.

Toyota is also looking to retain its title as the “world’s biggest carmaker” because Volkswagen is closing the margin between them. If the opening of the North American Production Plant, this will give them the edge they need. Hopefully with the success of the new US plant, this will cause more companies to relocate here.

 

Do you think this was a will be a smart move for Lexus to produce their cars for the first time outside of Japan? What would some of the concerns be for the carmaker?

Do you think the US government is giving these large tax credits to help stimulate the economy by creating new jobs?

Will other carmakers follow?

 

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2013/04/19/the-sweetheart-deal-toyota-got-to-build-an-american-lexus/

http://blog.caranddriver.com/lexus-to-refresh-ls-for-2013-with-spindle-grille-previews-it-2013-es-and-2014-is-in-video/