Toyota Motor Corporation was formed as a spinoff of Toyoda Loom Works

In 1937, Toyota Motor Corporation was formed as a spinoff of Toyoda Loom Works. The new car company initially looked to the U.S. auto industry for inspiration. According to The New York Times: "Its first car, the AA, was a blatant copy of (or an homage to) a Chevrolet sedan. Its executives scoured every corner of the Ford Motor Company in the 1950s, taking home ideas to Japan that later inspired the Toyota Production System."

In 1966, Toyota introduced its compact Corolla model, which in 1997 became the world's best-selling car, with more than 35 million sold at the time. The oil crisis of the 1970s made Toyota's small, fuel-efficient vehicles increasingly attractive in America. In the 1980s, the automaker launched the popular Camry and 4Runner sport utility vehicle. Toyota's luxury car line, Lexus, debuted in the U.S. in 1989. The automaker introduced the planet's first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, the Prius, in 1997 in Japan and worldwide in 2001. By the end of the 1990s, Toyota had produced over 100 million vehicles in Japan.

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