Toyota Motor Corp. will use its North American plants as a bigger source of vehicle exports in a bid to blunt the impact of the rising yen, according to Yoshimi Inaba, chief operating officer for the region.
The company is now shipping cars and trucks built at North American plants to 19 countries, including South Korea and Saudi Arabia, and aims to significantly boost the volume from 16,700 units a year ago, Inaba told reporters at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Wednesday.
"This is only a beginning," Inaba said. "The only way to take advantage of this extremely high yen is to export from this dollar basis."