Toyota Said It Will Build New Engines In Alabama
Toyota said that it has selected a 200-acre site in Huntsville, Alabama for its newest engine plant in North America. The plant will machine and assemble V8 engines for Toyota’s full-size Tundra pickup truck, which is made exclusively in Princeton, Ind. The Huntsville plant will be Toyota’s first outside of Japan to manufacture V8 engines.
The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 120,000 units and represent a $220 million investment by Toyota. The company said the facility is expected to bring 350 new jobs to Alabama and indirectly create work for many more. Toyota plans to begin producing the V8s at the new plant in the summer of 2003.
The plant is the latest addition to Toyota’s increasing manufacturing investment in the U.S. and Canada. By 2003, the automaker will have capacity to build 1.45 million cars and trucks a year, and 1.16 million engines. Toyota currently has three engine plants in North America. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc. and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. both produce four-cylinder and V6 engines. Also, its plant in Ontario, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc., assembles four-cylinder engines.
By 2003, Toyota said it will employ some 33,000 people throughout North America. With this new investment, the company’s direct investment tops $13 billion with annual parts and materials purchases from North American suppliers totaling more than $11 billion.
COPYRIGHT 2001 International Trade Services
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
