Toyota Motor Corp. appears to be moving closer to shuttering California's last auto plant.
The Japanese automaker plans to start talks next week that could dissolve New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, which opened in Fremont in 1984 as a 50-50 joint venture of Toyota and then-General Motors Corp.
The plan appeared to take the Bay Area factory closer to an eventual shutdown, though Toyota said Thursday that "a number of difficult and complex issues" needed to be addressed before a final decision was made. As a result, "this process will take more time," Toyota said.
"When we talk about liquidating NUMMI, that's not saying we're closing the plant," said Mike Michels, a spokesman with Toyota Motor Sales USA in Torrance. "That's talking about liquidating the legal entity."
GM said last month that it would abandon the partnership as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.
It's possible that Toyota or another bidder could make an offer for GM's stake in the plant, now owned by Motors Liquidation Co. -- the entity charged with selling the assets shed by GM in its recent bankruptcy.
"It's possible that NUMMI has negligible or even negative market value," said Van Conway, a partner at restructuring firm Conway, MacKenzie & Dunleavy.
Regardless, Toyota may not be interested in making a bid for the plant, which produces Pontiac Vibe hatchbacks, Toyota Corolla sedans and Toyota Tacoma pickups. GM said in June that production of the Vibe would cease in August.
"There is a likelihood we would not buy the rest of it," Yoshimi Inaba, recently appointed chief executive of Toyota Motor North America, told the Detroit Free Press.
The plant's management issued a statement holding out hope the facility would survive.
"Toyota has taken a direction but has not made a final decision regarding NUMMI," the statement said.
Few auto industry experts would be surprised if Toyota pulled the plug. California is a high-cost manufacturing state. In addition, Toyota has plenty of unused production capacity in North America -- including factories in Mexico and Canada that make the Tacoma and the Corolla, said George Peterson, president of Tustin consulting firm AutoPacific.
He noted that Fremont is the only Toyota plant where workers are represented by the United Auto Workers union, which has a contract that's set to expire next month.
"The odds are against Toyota keeping the plant open," Peterson said.
