of physical plant sold to tesla motors predecessor fremont assembly 1960 1982 successor tesla factory physical plant founded 1984 1984 defunct 2010 headquarters fremont california united states products subcompact cars and trucks services automotive manufacturing owner general motors and toyota 1984 2010 website archived home page new united motor manufacturing inc. nummi was an automobile manufacturing company in fremont california jointly owned by general motors and toyota that opened in 1984 and closed in 2010 . on october 27 2010 its former plant reopened as a 100 % tesla motors owned production facility known as the tesla factory . 1 the plant is located in the east industrial area of fremont between interstate 880 and interstate 680 . contents 1 overview 2 facility 3 employees 4 models produced 5 history 5.1 background 5.2 events as closure approached 5.3 after nummi use of the land and facility 6 see also 7 references 8 external links overview edit the nummi plant in fremont california nummi was established at the former general motors fremont assembly site that had been closed two years earlier in 1982 gm plant since 1962 . gm and toyota reopened the factory as a joint venture in 1984 to manufacture vehicles to be sold under both brands . 2 gm saw the joint venture as an opportunity to learn about lean manufacturing from the japanese company while toyota gained its first manufacturing base in north america and a chance to implement its production system in an american labor environment 3 avoiding possible import restrictions . 4 gm employees went to toyota s takaoka plant in japan and improved production at nummi 5 6 spring hill and other sites 7 particularly after jack smith spread the program . 8 9 up to may 2010 nummi built an average of 6000 vehicles a week or nearly eight million cars and trucks since opening in 1984 . 10 11 gm pulled out of the venture in june 2009 and several months later toyota announced plans to pull out by march 2010 . 12 13 the closure was opposed by city officials 14 15 16 including fremont mayor bob wasserman who lobbied to keep nummi in the city . 17 however at 9.40 am on april 1 2010 the plant produced its last car a red toyota corolla s believed to be destined for a museum in japan . citation needed production of corollas in north america moved to toyota motor manufacturing mississippi s assembly plant in blue springs mississippi . on may 20 2010 it was announced that tesla motors had purchased 18 19 part of the nummi plant and would be collaborating with toyota on the development of electric vehicles parts and production system and engineering support . according to tesla motors plans the plant would first be used to produce the tesla model s sedan with future vehicles following in the coming years . the plant called the tesla factory was projected to produce 20 000 vehicles a year and employ 1 000 workers to start . 20 facility edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message the plant spans the equivalent of about 88 football fields and is configured into a main building that does the final assembly of vehicles and five other facilities plastics facility fabricating bumpers instrument panels interior panels and others ; stamping facility that fabricates all visible sheet metal parts ; welding facility that assembles all metallic parts into one rigid unit ; and two paint facilities one for passenger vehicles and another for truck cabs . employees edit until the facility s closure in april 2010 4 700 workers were employed . 21 nummi employees were represented by the international united automobile aerospace and agricultural implement workers of america uaw local 2244 . models produced edit the first model nummi produced was the chevrolet nova 1984 1988 . this was followed by the geo prizm 1989 1997 the chevrolet prizm 1998 2002 and the hilux 1991 1995 predecessor of the tacoma as well as the toyota voltz the japanese right hand drive version of the pontiac vibe . both of the latter are based on the toyota matrix . production of the pontiac vibe hatchback was discontinued in august 2009 as gm phased out the pontiac brand in the midst of a bailout . 22 along with saturn and hummer pontiac joined oldsmobile which had been discontinued after 2004 among the four gm brands that are no longer in production . beginning in september 1986 the nummi plant produced the corolla . 2 in january 1995 it began producing the toyota tacoma pickup truck . 2 in 1997 nummi produced 357 809 cars and trucks 23 peaking at 428 633 units in 2006 . 9 history edit background edit the factory which nummi took over was built by general motors and operated by them from 1962 to 1982 . 2 the idea of reopening the plant emerged from the need that gm had to build high quality and profitable small cars and the need toyota had to start building cars in the united states a requirement due to the possibility of import restrictions by the u.s. congress . 10 11 the choice of the fremont plant and its workers was unusual . at the time of its closure the fremont employees were considered the worst workforce in the automobile industry in the united states according to the united auto workers . 10 11 employees drank alcohol on the job were frequently absent enough so that the production line couldn t be started and even committed petty acts of sabotage such as putting coke bottles inside the door panels so they d rattle and annoy the customer . 10 11 in spite of the history and reputation when nummi reopened the factory for production in 1984 most of the troublesome gm workforce was rehired with some sent to japan to learn the toyota production system . 10 11 workers who made the transition identified the emphasis on quality and teamwork by toyota management as what motivated a change in work ethic . 10 11 by december 1984 the first car a yellow chevrolet nova rolled off the assembly line . and almost right away the nummi factory was producing cars with as few defects per 100 vehicles as those produced in japan . 10 11 but 15 years later gm had still not been able to implement lean manufacturing in the rest of the united states though gm managers trained at nummi were successful in introducing the approach to its unionized factories in brazil . 24 events as closure approached edit daily tours of the plant offered free to the public were ended on february 27 2009 . 25 26 on june 29 2009 general motors announced that they would discontinue the joint venture with toyota . 27 the announcement was made following gm ceo fritz henderson announcing in april that general motors would discontinue the pontiac vibe production at nummi . the two automakers were in discussions but could not find a suitable product to be produced at the factory . after extensive analysis gm and toyota could not reach an agreement on a future product plan that made sense for all parties gm north america president troy clarke said in a statement . toyota s hope was to continue the venture and we haven t yet decided any plans at the factory said hideaki homma toyota s tokyo based spokesman . while we respect this decision by gm the economic and business environment surrounding toyota is also extremely severe and so this decision by gm makes the situation even more difficult for toyota . before gm decided to sever its stake in the nummi joint venture toyota was considering offering a version of its prius hybrid to gm that would be built at the factory and sold as a gm model but toyota has indicated that it was seriously considering exiting the venture also . 28 29 on august 27 2009 toyota announced that it would discontinue its production contract with nummi shifting tacoma production to its san antonio texas pickup plant and corolla assembly to blue springs mississippi . a total of 5 400 employees were affected including 4 550 uaw hourly workers . 30 in november 2009 toyota s head of u.s. sales took calls from autoworkers saying that though it has been a difficult decision to shut down the plant the economics of having a plant in california so far away from the supplier lines in the midwest just doesn t make business sense for toyota to continue running the nummi plant . 31 meanwhile autoworkers prepared for the shut down by refreshing skills and planning for career transitions . 32 federal state and local officials also participated in the transition discussions . 33 toyota paid 281 million in severance package to the plant s 4 700 employees . 34 after nummi use of the land and facility edit for more details on this topic see tesla factory . in january 2010 a possible use of the land was proposed a new stadium for home games of the oakland athletics of major league baseball . it is close to the proposed site of cisco field which was never formally approved . 35 a regional committee was formed in february 2010 to investigate the closure of the plant . 36 on march 10 2010 aurica motors announced a proposal to save the nummi automotive plant and the jobs associated with it . the company said that it intended to raise investment capital and garner federal economic stimulus funds to help retrain the workers and retool the facility for production of electrical vehicles . 37 38 the nummi plant ceased operations on april 1 2010 ending the toyota gm joint venture . california s last automobile manufacturing plant saw its last car a corolla roll off the assembly line . 39 on may 20 2010 tesla motors and toyota announced a partnership to work on electric vehicle development which included tesla s partial purchase of the former nummi site mainly consisting of the factory building . 18 21 tesla ceo elon musk said the tesla s sedan will be built at the plant . 40 when tesla took over the location in 2010 they renamed it the tesla factory . 41 see also edit cami automotive cami a similar joint venture in canada between suzuki and general motors from 1986 to 2009 ; now operating as a wholly owned gm plant . united australian automobile industries uaai a similar joint venture in australia between toyota and gm holden from 1989 to 1996 . gung ho film a 1986 comedy film portraying a similar joint venture and is used by toyota executives in japan as an example of how not to manage americans . 42 references edit sibley lisa october 27 2010 . tesla officially replaces nummi in fremont . a b c d timeline . nummi . archived from the original on april 2 2010 . retrieved november 30 2013 . adler paul s. january 1995 . democratic taylorism the toyota production system at nummi . researchgate . retrieved october 10 2016 . global website 75 years of toyota section 3 . local production starts in north america item 2 . joint venture with gm . toyota . 2012 . archived from the original on march 30 2016 . retrieved october 10 2016 . how nummi changed its culture . september 30 2009 . archived from the original on may 14 2016 . retrieved october 10 2016 . how to change a culture lessons from nummi . mit sloan management review . 2010 . archived from the original on march 2 2016 . retrieved october 10 2016 . goodbye to