800 temporary workers at a Toyota plant in Japan were laid off yesterday:

Japanese automaker Toyota has laid off 800 people at a plant in southwestern Japan, or about 10 percent of the plant’s work force, in response to declining sales in North America, a company official said Tuesday.

All the job cuts — carried out in June and August at Toyota Motor Corp.’s wholly owned subsidiary Toyota Motor Kyushu — applied to workers sent by job-referral agencies. Japanese companies are increasingly relying on such agencies for temporary workers called “haken” to be flexible to market demand.

Prior to the layoffs, Toyota Motor Kyushu, which makes Lexus luxury models, had employed 8,200 workers — 1,950 of them haken — an official said on condition of anonymity, citing company policy.

The official said the job cuts were temporary and 500 haken workers will be brought back later this year. He declined to comment on why they would be needed back, saying product plans can’t be released.

Just looking at the first six months of Lexus sales, it’s not surprising that a workforce adjustment was necessary. (The article also talks about the concept of Haken workers in Japan, which I found very interesting.)

[Source: Manufacturing.net]

Big LF-A news today, as Edmund’s Inside Line has sleuthed out a possible price on the Lexus supercar:

With an estimated 500 horsepower coming from the LF-A’s 5.0-liter V10, we didn’t expect the Lexus to come cheap, but Inside Line has learned that the car will carry a price tag over $200,000.

Ben Mitchell, corporate product planning manager for Lexus, confirmed that the price of the carbon-fiber supercar “will begin with a two.” And another Lexus source in Japan told Inside Line the price may be as high as $225,000.

First off, one interesting thing about this article is that the quote from Ben Mitchell has been removed since being published, with no explanation. I found it very surprising that anyone from Lexus would comment on the price, and it looks there’s been some damage control initiated.

As for the potential price, I don’t quite understand it. It may compete performance-wise with the cars in this segment, but it doesn’t follow Lexus’ standard procedure of offering more for less. My feeling is that if this number is accurate, there’s going to be something very special about this car.

Looks like whatever the problem was yesterday has been solved, because the Lexus LF-A was seen moving on its own power today, no doubt prepping for its time on Nürburgring. With that in mind, Motor Trend seems to think the real reason the LF-A has been absent from the ‘ring for so long is that Lexus is scared of the Nissan GTR:

Maybe it’s just the way Toyota’s testing is scheduled (according to our spies at the ‘Ring, the LF-A has resurfaced and should be on track shortly). But I wonder. Has the GT-R got Toyota running scared?

Toyota’s problem is this: The GT-R has set the performance bar incredibly high for the next Japanese supercar. And Toyota being Toyota, delivering a supercar that’s second-best to a Nissan is unthinkable, especially if it’s going to carry the Lexus badge. The LF-A has to be faster than the GT-R, in a straight line, and around the legendary Nordschliefe. Otherwise it risks being perceived a failure.

I think it’s safe to say that it’s just the way Toyota’s testing is scheduled, though there is merit in the idea. I wouldn’t limit it to just Lexus though, the GTR has to have every supercar manufacturer a little nervous.

(That being said, it’s funny that the other story of the day is Autoweek preferring the IS-F over the GTR.)

[Photo from Jalopnik]

This Lexus-produced video showing the manufacturing process of the IS is full-on fantastic:

I’ll admit to a soft spot when it comes to this type of behind-the-scenes video footage, and no matter how many times I read about it, it’s mind-boggling just how quality-obsessed Lexus really is. I was particularly impressed by the electronic tools that report every minute detail, which is used to build an entire build “history” of each car. Not only that, I don’t think I’ll ever look at wood in a luxury car the same way again, I had no idea just what lengths were taken to achieve the end result.

In order to stay on top of demand in Russia, China, and other emerging markets, Lexus will be ramping up their production capacity by a staggering 35%, from 600,000 to 850,000.

The Nikkei Business Daily reports:

Toyota now makes Lexuses at its Tahara plant, in Aichi Prefecture, and at Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc.’s Miyata facility, in Fukuoka Prefecture, for a combined output capacity of more than 600,000 units a year.

At the Tahara plant, Toyota will enable lines churning out Toyota brand sport utility vehicles and other offerings to also make Lexuses. Spending a few billion yen, the automaker will overhaul its painting line as well as install measuring equipment and other infrastructure to ensure high-quality production.

Meanwhile, at the Miyata plant — which produces such Lexuses as the RX — infrastructure will be added to the line that makes both the luxury cars and other Toyota vehicles. This year, Toyota aims to ramp up that line’s output capacity from 200,000 units to 230,000. In addition to a Lexus-only assembly line, production capacity at that facility will be lifted to a maximum of 460,000 units a year.

This is a colossal jump, although this is strictly related to output capacity and not to actual production numbers. While the two Lexus plants in Japan have the ability to build 600,000 vehicles currently, only (!!) 414,400 were produced last year.

Really, this is just future planning.

[Source: The Nikkei Business Daily (Subscription Required)]

(Thanks Davin!)

According to Winding Road, the new issue of Autocar is reporting that Lexus will be moving away from the L-Finesse design language used to style their cars over the last two years.

L-Finesse, which was created by Leonardo Fioravanti, first appeared in production form with the introduction of the 2006 GS model, and was meant to embody three essential qualities: Intriguing Elegance, Incisive Simplicity, and Seamless Anticipation. In practical terms, the vehicles using the L-Finesse language had some common features, including a fastback profile, a lower set grille and the use of both concave and convex surfaces.

There’s no mention of when L-Finesse will be discontinued, or what will come next, but I’m taking this news with some cautious optimism. I much preferred when the Lexus lineup didn’t all resemble one another, when it wasn’t just variations on the same theme. Still, there’s no saying that the future direction of the brand styling will be any different in that regard.