Saturn, Tachi-S & JCI

Johnson Controls and Tachi-S joint venture supplies seats to Saturn Corp.

October 31, 1990 (PD: 201410)

The October 31, 1990 issue of Briefing (a Johnson Controls newsletter) noted that General Motors’ long-awaited Saturn cars were publicly unveiled earlier that month. The Saturn project had begun in 1982, with the first prototype vehicle produced in 1984.  GM hoped that Saturn cars would compete effectively on price, styling, and quality with imported cars.

Complete seating systems for the Saturn Corporation’s vehicles were provided by Hyperion Corporation, a joint venture between Johnson Controls and Tachi-S, the largest independent seating supplier in Japan.  Hyperion’s new plant in Lewisburg, Tennessee supplied complete seats to the Saturn plant in nearby Spring Hill, Tennessee.  Johnson and Tachi-S also teamed up to form Setex, Inc., which provided complete seat systems for Honda Accords, and TechnoTrim, Inc., which supplied seats for just-in-time plants in several states.