Central Motor Co., Ltd. was a Japanese manufacturer of cars within the

Toyota Group The is a group of companies that have supplier, vendor and investment relationships with Toyota Industries and Toyota Motor vehicle manufacturing facilities. It is similar to a '' keiretsu'' in that no particular entity has outright control ov ...

. It was founded on 4 September 1950 by Ryuichi Tomiya. The company operated five plants, all located in Japan. It was one of the biggest export vehicle manufacturers of the concern. In July 2012 it was merged with two other Toyota subsidiaries operating in Tohoku to form

Toyota Motor East Japan Toyota Motor East Japan is a manufacturing subsidiary of the Toyota group based in Japan. It was founded in July 2012 by the merger of Central Motors, Kanto Auto Works and Toyota Motors Tohoku. History Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and ...

History

Central Motors was the operational successor of ( Kamata, Tokyo). In 1950, employees of the Kamata Plant were made redundant after it was closed down by Toyota. They founded Central Motors that year and began producing

light commercial vehicle A light commercial vehicle (LCV) in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand is a commercial carrier vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of no more than 3.5 metric tons (tonnes). The LCV designation is also occasionally used in both Cana ...

s for Toyota in 1956. In 1959, Toyota acquired the company and moved the production from Kamata to Sagamihara which would later also become the headquarters base. The company opened various facilities for auto parts production. A new assembly plant and headquarters were built in Ohira, Miyagi. The new facility started production in January 2011 and the Sagamihara plant was closed later that year. On 1 July 2012, three Toyota subcontractors (Central Motors, Toyota Motors Tohoku and

Kanto Auto Works was a Japanese car manufacturer. It was a member of the Toyota Group. In July 2012, Kanto Auto Works and two other Toyota subsidiaries were merged to form Toyota Motor East Japan. History In April 1946, Kanto Auto Works was established in Y ...

) were combined into a single company, with all their manufacturing facilities and assets renamed as

, Inc. After the merger of the three former companies, the corporate headquarters was established at the former Central Motors site in Miyagi. There were just over 1,500 employees at the Central Motors location.

Operations

At closing, Central Motors operated the following facilities: * Ohira, Miyagi (headquarters) * Ohira, Miyagi (car assembly plant) * Wakayanagi, Miyagi (auto parts plant) Central Motors mainly manufactured vehicles for export to Europe or North America. Special vehicles such as police, fire department vehicles as well as campers were produced by the company. Production also included CKD kits of the

Toyota Tundra The Toyota Tundra is a full-size pickup truck manufactured in the United States by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota since May 1999. The Tundra was the second full-size pickup to be built by a Japanese manufacturer (the first was the Toyota T100 ...

Model gallery

File:1956 Toyota Toyoace 01.jpg, Toyopet Toyoace SKB
1956–1959 File:1956 Toyopet Masterline-Van 01.jpg, Toyopet Masterline
1957–1961 File:Toyota Publica Convertible.jpg, Toyopet Publica Convertible
1963–1968 File:Toyota Corona Pickup RT40.jpg, Toyopet Corona Pickup
(1964 bis 1968) File:T40Coronavan.jpg, Toyopet Corona Van
1965–1970 File:1977 Toyota Corona (RT118) station wagon (2015-11-11) 01.jpg, Toyopet Corona Van
1973–1978 File:Toyota Crown S80 002.JPG, Toyopet Crown Station Wagon
1974–1979 File:Toyota Carina Bj ca 1971 photo 2008 Castle Hedingham.JPG, Toyota Carina
1975–1977 File:1978Carina.jpg, Toyota Carina
1977–1981 File:1981 Toyota Corona (XT130) SE sedan (2016-01-04) 01.jpg, Toyota Corona Sedan
1978–1981 File:1979 Toyota Corona (XT130) SE station wagon (2015-06-15) 01.jpg, Toyota Corona Van
(1978–1982) File:6th generation Toyota Crown Wagon.jpg, Toyota Crown Station Wagon
1979–1983 File:Toyota carina a60.jpg, Toyota Carina
1981–1987 File:1985 Toyota Corona (ST141) S station wagon (2009-01-16).jpg, Toyota Corona Van
1982–1987 File:Toyota MR2 1587cc first registered January 1990.JPG,

Toyota MR2 The Toyota MR2 is a line of two-seater, MR layout, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports cars, manufactured in Japan and marketed globally by Toyota from 1984 until 2007 over three generations: W10 (1984–1989), W20 (1989–1999) and W30 (1999� ...

1984–1989 File:Toyota MR2 (SW20) ca 1995 at Snetterton 2008.JPG,

1989–1999 File:Toyota_Sera.JPG, Toyota Sera
1990–1995 File:1992 Toyota Caldina 01.jpg, Toyota Caldina
1993–1997 File:Toyota Caldina van.jpg, Toyota Caldina Van
1993–2002 File:Toyota Hiace Wagon 011.JPG, Toyota Hiace
1993–1996 File:Toyota Hiace Wagon 006.JPG, Toyota Hiace
1996–2000 File:Z10 Toyota Raum 1.jpg, Toyota Raum
1997–2003 File:2002 Toyota MR2 (ZZW30R) Spyder convertible (2015-08-07) 01.jpg, Toyota MR-S
1999–2007 File:Toyota WiLL Vi.jpg, WiLL Vi
2000–2001 File:Toyota Willvs.jpg, WiLL VS
2001–2004 File:2004-2006 Toyota Allex.jpg, Toyota Allex
2001–2007 File:2001-2002 Toyota Corolla Runx.jpg, Toyota Corolla RunX
2001–2007 File:WiLL Cypha 003.JPG, WiLL Cypha
2002–2005 File:Z20 Toyota Raum 1.jpg, Toyota Raum
since 2003 File:2000 Toyota bB 01.jpg, Toyota bB
2004–2005 File:2008 Toyota bB 01.jpg, Toyota bB
2005–2007 File:2007-2010 Toyota Corolla (ZRE152R) Ascent sedan (2011-04-02).jpg,

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly Subcompact car, subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has bee ...

2006–2013 File:2006 Toyota Corolla-Axio 02.jpg, Toyota Corolla Axio
2006–2012 File:2008 Toyota Belta 01.jpg, Toyota Belta
2007–2012 File:2013 Toyota Corolla-Axio-Hybrid 01.jpg, Toyota Corolla Axio
since 2012 Additional models that have no pictures yet: * Toyota Dyna (1957–1959) * Toyopet Type FS Ambulance (1961–1968) * Toyopet Corona Mark II PickUp (1968–1971) * Toyopet Crown Station Wagon (1973–1974) * Toyopet Corona Van (1970–1973) * Toyota Carina Surf (1982–1987) *

(CKD kits only)

Notes

References

External links

* {{Japan Toyota subcontracting assembly Car manufacturers of Japan Toyota subsidiaries Companies based in Miyagi Prefecture Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1950 Japanese companies established in 1950 Ōhira, Miyagi