Toyota's cars are made all over the world. Because Toyota is the world's largest automotive manufacturer by volume, with 10.8 million units sold in 2024 in nearly every market, it has a production footprint that extends far outside its native country of Japan.
The entire Toyota automotive empire was based on a weaving machine invented by Sakichi Toyoda in the early 20th Century. Toyoda created the first automatic loom and by 1918 had set up the Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company. Toyoda's invention
not only automated the weaving process, but it also stopped whenever a problem was encountered, preventing it from wasting thread. A British company purchased the rights to Toyoda's loom in 1929 for £100,000, which was used to develop automotive technology. By 1936, Toyoda launched its first automobile, the model 'AA.' The company changed its name to the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937 because writing 'Toyota' took eight strokes to write in Japanese, a lucky number in Japan, compared to 10 strokes to write 'Toyoda.'
Today, Toyota cars are made in many different locations. In Japan, Toyota has eight plants that assemble Toyota, Lexus, and Daihatsu vehicles. Latin America was the site of the first Toyota assembly plant outside Japan, located in Brazil in 1959, with additional assembly plants in Venezuela and Argentina afterward. In North America, Canada has one Toyota assembly plant, Mexico has two, and the U.S. has eight. The UK and Europe are the sites of five Toyota assembly plants, while the Asia Pacific region has 17 Toyota assembly plants, and Africa has four more.
Read more: 10 Toyota Models With Terrible Resale Value
Who Owns Toyota Today?
Today, Toyota Motor Corporation is a publicly-owned company, with millions of shares owned by institutional investors, mutual funds, and individual investors around the world. Toyota Motor Corporation's stock trades primarily on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but U.S. investors can access the stock through Toyota Motor Corporation ADRs (American depositary receipts), which trade under the symbol TM on the New York Stock Exchange. The largest U.S. shareholders, as of March 31, 2025, are Fisher Asset Management, LLC, Bank of America Corporation, and Morgan Stanley. Akio Toyoda is the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Toyota Motor Corporation. He is also a dyed-in-the-wool auto enthusiast and racing driver, whose passion project is Toyota's motorsport and performance brand, Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Toyota's assembly plants in the U.S. make a variety of vehicles for the North American market. These include the Toyota RAV4, Camry, Highlander, Grand Highlander, Sienna, Tundra, Sequoia, Corolla, and Corolla Cross, as well as the Lexus ES. Toyota also has an assembly plant in Canada, which produces the Lexus RX and NX models, plus the Toyota RAV4, which our reviewer found to be an affordable crossover that plays it safe. In Mexico, Toyota makes the Toyota Tacoma pickup in two different plants.
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