Toyota to build vehicle plant in Mississippi, U.S.A.

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that, as part of its continuing localization efforts in North America, it has decided to build a new vehicle production plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, U.S.A.

The new plant will be Toyota's eighth vehicle production plant in North America and will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, producing the Highlander SUV, starting in around 2010. Plans call for an investment of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars and creation of approximately 2,000 new jobs.

This development is expected to bring Toyota's North American annual production capacity to 2.17 million vehicles, including the start of OEM production of the Camry sedan at Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (100,000 units annually) and expanded production capacity for the Tacoma pickup truck at Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California in Mexico (increase of 20,000 units), both in 2007, and the opening of the Woodstock plant of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Canada, Inc. for the RAV4 SUV in 2008 (150,000 units annually).

TMC President Katsuaki Watanabe had this to say on the occasion of today's announcement: "Our decision to establish a new plant in the United States is based on our long-standing policy of producing vehicles where demand is. Our wish is that the new plant will develop strong ties to the local community and produce the highest-quality products with strong emphasis on the principles of 'customer first' and 'quality first'."

Outline of new plant