Toyota bumping US investments up to nearly $13B over 5 years; focus on advancing electrification

Toyota announced it will exceed its 2017 pledge to invest $10 billion in the US over five years with a new commitment to reach nearly $13 billion over the same period.

Of that, Toyota announced nearly $750 million in five different states, with more to come. The new investments include adding Toyota RAV4 Hybrid and Lexus ES 300 Hybrid vehicle production at its Georgetown, Ky. manufacturing plant; expanding engine capacity at its Huntsville, Ala. facility; doubling hybrid transaxle capacity at its plant in Buffalo, W.Va.; and a building expansion for additional castings at Bodine Aluminum's Jackson, Tenn. facility as well as additional castings at its Troy, Mo. facility.

• In Alabama, Toyota’s $288,000,000 investment will increase annual engine capacity from 670,000 to 900,000 by the end of 2021 to increase product flexibility and better accommodate market demand. New 4-cylinder and V6 engine lines will add 450 new jobs to its Huntsville, Ala., facility, the largest hiring need in the plant’s history. The investment also includes a building expansion. Overall, the plant represents an investment of $1.2 billion.
• Toyota’s Kentucky vehicle plant, the company’s largest globally, will begin production of the Lexus ES 300 Hybrid in May 2019 with annual capacity of 12,000 units while RAV4 Hybrid production will start January 2020 with an annual capacity of 100,000 units. The new investment totals $238 million. TMMK’s 8,000 team members also build Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid and Lexus ES models with an annual capacity of 550,000 vehicles. Overall, the plant represents an investment of more than $7 billion.
• The $62-million investment in Toyota‘s Bodine Aluminum plant in Missouri will provide equipment to produce an additional 864,000 cylinder heads for Toyota’s New Global Architecture (TNGA.) Bodine’s 900 Missouri team members currently produce more than 3 million cylinder heads a year, which are made for every Toyota and Lexus manufactured in North America. Overall, the plant represents an investment of $455 million.
• The $50-million Tennessee investment includes a building expansion and equipment to double the capacity of hybrid transaxle cases and housings to 240,000 annually. The investment will also provide equipment to produce an additional 288,000 engine blocks a year for TNGA. The plant’s 300 team members currently produce 1.7 million engine blocks a year, which supply every Toyota and Lexus manufactured in North America, and 580,000 transmission cases and housings. Bodine will add 13 new jobs to its facility in Tennessee. Overall, the plant represents an investment of $365 million.
• The $111-million West Virginia investment includes a building expansion and equipment to double capacity of hybrid transaxles from 120,000 units (Start of Production-2020) to 240,000 units annually in 2021. To meet the production demands, TMMWV will add 123 new jobs to its facility in Buffalo, WV. Overall, the plant represents a $1.4 billion investment.

This past year, Toyota announced a joint venture with Mazda to build an additional plant in the US. The $1.6-billion joint investment will create up to 4,000 new jobs in Huntsville, Ala. with production slated for 2021. Meanwhile, Toyota's Princeton, Ind., plant is undergoing a $600-million transformation (previously announced) to incorporate TNGA and increase Highlander capacity by 40,000 units annually.

With this, Toyota is adding 400+ people to its team in Indiana. In Blue Springs, Miss., Toyota is launching the all-new 2020 Corolla on the TNGA line that included a $170-million investment and an increase of 400 jobs (previously announced.) Currently, Toyota employs more than 37,000 Americans.