The Hen Tax was the automotive trade’s most well-known tariff, not less than up till President Donald Trump began senselessly slapping tariffs on all the pieces. The Hen Tax began as an truly reciprocal tariff when Europe imposed an import tax on American chickens in 1963, which brought about a 25% lack of enterprise for U.S. hen exports. In retaliation, the U.S. authorities added imported vehicles to the listing of imported items that face a 25% import tariff, which brought about the costs of imported vehicles to blow up and develop into uncompetitive with American vehicles. With a view to circumvent the tariff, Toyota took over a former napalm manufacturing facility within the port city of Lengthy Seashore, California to fabricate beds that may very well be bolted onto unfinished Hello-Luxes that had been imported with a cab, engine, and chassis, thus qualifying as imported autos, not vehicles.
Hagerty revealed a sensational article about this automotive historical past factoid, and as a Lengthy Seashore native who by no means knew this lore, I needed to write about it. The unique article could be very detailed and I implore you to present it a learn.
From napalm to truck beds
The manufacturing facility that Toyota took over was occupied by Diamond Plastics within the Nineteen Sixties, and one of many merchandise produced there was the incendiary gel utilized in flame throwers and firebombs within the Vietnam Warfare often called napalm. Dealing with such a unstable compound resulted in three reported explosions on the manufacturing facility, which was positioned close to a neighborhood. Unsurprisingly, the neighboring residents weren’t enthusiastic concerning the manufacturing of napalm of their again yard, and so they protested towards it, however ultimately Diamond Plastics misplaced its contract on the Atlas Fabricators manufacturing facility, and Toyota contracted the ability to provide truck beds.
Since Toyota imported incomplete autos moderately than vehicles, the rolling cab-and-chassis had been solely topic to a 2.5% import tax moderately than the 25% tax that affected imported vehicles. After Atlas Fabricators manufactured the truck beds, Toyota would bolt the beds onto the frames, qualifying the vehicles as having their remaining meeting accomplished in the USA. There have been 15 different U.S. suppliers that produced truck beds for Toyota by 1972, and by 1974 Toyota took over Atlas Fabricators and renamed it Lengthy Seashore Fabricators, then later renamed to Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA, and eventually it renamed the ability as Toyota Auto Physique California because the facility did not truly manufacture automobiles, it simply fabricated truck beds.
Toyota
Toyota Auto Physique California continues to be in operation in Lengthy Seashore, California at the moment, and it is the first producer of components for Toyota Tacomas in addition to past-model service components. It was Toyota’s first manufacturing facility in North America, and it stays the corporate’s longest-running North American plant. To examine much more titillating particulars of the plant’s historical past, learn Hagerty’s article right here.
