Toyota to break ground on expansion
Plant will produce V-8 engines and add 300 jobs
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama is scheduled to break ground this morning on a $250 million expansion at its engine plant in northwest Huntsville that will mean 300 more jobs.
The expansion, which will allow for the production of additional V-8 engines, will nearly double the size of the plant, taking it from about 443,000 square feet to more than 700,000 square feet. These V-8 engines will be built for the Tundra and Sequoia SUVs produced in Indiana and for Tundras that will be produced at a new Toyota plant under construction in San Antonio, Texas.
Production is scheduled to begin in late 2006.
"We are continuing our growth because of the dedication of our team members," said Kunihiko Ogura, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama. "I know we will have continued success as we approach this new project."
This is the second expansion of the engine plant in less than two years. The automaker announced in July 2003 it would add a production line to build V-6 engines. Gov. Bob Riley announced the latest expansion project last September.
Once the expansions are complete, the plant will have 800 employees in all, and the total investment will be $490 million. By then, the plant is to produce 400,000 V-6 and V-8 engines a year.
The Huntsville plant produced 52,318 engines in 2003 and 107,031 in 2004.
"This expansion will allow us to build more of the powerful trucks our customers demand," said Atsushi Niimi, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America. "These Alabama-made engines will be the heart of those trucks."
Since May 2003, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama has supplied V-8 engines for the Tundra full-size pickup produced in Indiana. The plant will start producing V-6 engines this summer. The V-6 engines will be used for the Tundra and for Tacoma pickup trucks made in Fremont, Calif., and Baja California, Mexico.
By 2006, Toyota will have the capacity to build 1.66 million vehicles and 1.44 million engines each year in North America. The company now has more than 36,000 employees throughout North America; its direct investment is more than $15.3 billion.
Toyota's North American-produced vehicles include the Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Matrix, Sienna, Solara, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra and the Lexus RX 330.
© 2005 The Huntsville Times
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