The Toyota Motor Company has been a since its founding in 1937. For the past 78 years, it has been an automaker drivers across the globe could rely on and trust. Since its humble beginnings as a textile manufacturer in Japan to its worldwide acclaim as a superior automaker today, Toyota has always been known as an innovator, a game-changer, and an industry force to be reckoned with.
Toyota’s first two models, the A1 and the G1 truck, were actually released in 1935, two years before the official opening of the Toyota Motor Company. These two impressive vehicles set the stage for decades of limelight for the products coming out of Toyota factories. The 1940s saw an increase of new models, including several new and highly innovative trucks. This trend of bigger and better carried over into the ’50s and ’60s, reaching new engineering and heights, particularly with the establishment of Toyota Motor Sales USA in 1957. By 1962, one million Toyota vehicles had been produced in Japan alone; by 1986, that number would jump to 50 million.
Toyota has not stopped building, growing, and expanding since, but has always valued more than just economic growth. Toyota has track record of being more responsive and responsible than its competitors. It changed the game in 1997 with the release of the first-ever mass produced hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, which sold over half a million units in less than 10 years. It created one of the most reliable and coveted luxury brands in North America: Lexus. In 2006, it became the world’s most popular auto group, surpassing even GM.
Toyota is a firm believer in its well-known slogan, Let’s Go Places, and it’s got the history to prove it.