Toyota Motor Corp. is not afraid that its rapid growth in the face of massive layoffs at the Big Three US automakers will touch off a backlash, the Japanese automaker's North American president said Tuesday."We're mindful of the consequences of one company or a couple of companies not performing," Jim Press told reporters at an informal meeting in Detroit. "You have to consider the potential for a political backlash. But the reality is this environment is quite different than when we consider the word backlash in the context of the past," Press said.While disgruntled auto workers are no longer attacking imported cars in parking lots, Toyota has still taken some flack as its sales overtake those of DaimlerChrysler and Ford. And much as Press likes to remind reporters that the Chrysler Group is now owned by a German company, most Americans still consider it a domestic automaker. Toyota has been fighting back with a series of ads touting its investment in US plants."We're continuing to invest in our plants. Nobody is growing more," Press said, noting that Toyota's production capacity will grow by 600,000 units to 2.1 million vehicles in North America by 2010 as it builds a new plant in Mississippi and expands production at plants in Texas and in Ontario, Canada. Press expressed some frustration about the way Toyota's investments in the United States are reported by the local media."It's kind of funny the way it's perceived. But we (announced) our plant in Mississippi - 1.3 billion dollars and 2,000 jobs to start with - and there's a lot of focus on this issue of political backlash. "The same day, and I'm not going to mention the competitor, somebody announced that they were going to be bringing in cars from an Asian country," said Press, referring to DaimlerChrysler's announcement it had completed a deal with China's Chery Automotive.Under the agreement, the Chrysler Group will import small cars into the United States for sale by its dealers. "Nobody said anything about that," he said.Press also dismissed suggestions Toyota has benefited from an artificially low value of the Japanese yen and the US health care system, which penalizes companies such as General Motors and Ford Motor Co. who have to pay for the health care costs of large numbers of retirees.
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