Section 8. Debut of the Toyopet Crown, a Full-Fledged Passenger Car
Item 4. Changes in the Automotive Market
Increased demand for compact cars
According to the Five-Year Facility Modernization Plan from 1951, a system for a monthly output of 3,000 cars was set up at Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. in 1955, and in the period between October-December 1956 monthly output exceeded 5,000 cars.
A comparison of production results for 1951 and 1956 indicates a 3.26 fold increase of the total output, with a striking increase for compact passenger cars and light trucks (Table 1-43). In contrast sales of heavy-duty trucks virtually levelled off and its share of production output fell substantially, from 63 percent to 20 percent.
Table 1-43. Toyota Motor Production Results (1951-1956)
|
Compact passenger car
|
Large truck
|
Small truck
|
Total
|
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. of units
|
Share of total
|
No. of units
|
Share of total
|
No. of units
|
Share of total
|
||
1951
|
1,470
|
10.3%
|
8,989
|
63.2%
|
3,769
|
26.5%
|
14,228
|
1956
|
12,001
|
25.9%
|
9,127
|
19.7%
|
25,289
|
54.5%
|
46,417
|
Scaling factor of increase
|
8.16
|
|
1.02
|
|
6.71
|
|
3.26
|
Managing Director Eiji Toyoda stated in the preface of the January issue of Toyota Technology in 1951-the year the Five-Year Facility Modernization Plan started?that "the next five years will surely bring new opportunities"1, which seems to have indicated his expectation of this spread of compact cars. That that opportunity could be seized on in such a convincing manner was the result of the steady implementation of the Five-Year Facility Modernization Plan.
In response to these kinds of rapid increases and structural changes in automobile demand, the need arose to review sales and production systems.