Toyota Investing $1B Into New Mexican Plant

Toyota has revealed a multi-year plan that will realign its manufacturing operations in North America.

The Japanese automaker will be investing approximately $1 billion to build a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Central Mexico to build the new Corolla, which will be based on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) scalable platform. The new facility will have the capacity to produce 200,000 units annually and will employ approximately 2,000 team members. Production of the Corolla is expected to begin in Mexico starting in 2019. The new plant will be Toyota’s 15th in North America, its first since 2011 and largest investment in Mexico to date.

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Once the new factory is up and running in Mexico, Toyota will shift its Cambridge, Ontario North Plant in Canada to produce mid-sized, higher-value vehicles. It will be the first investment the company has made into its Ontario-based plant since it opened in 1997 and it won’t be the only one. Toyota will also be making investments in its Woodstock, Ontario plant to implement TNGA modifications. The Woodstock plant will continue building the RAV4 while the Cambridge South Plant will continue building the Lexus RX 350 and 450h models.

“We are thrilled to invest further in North America so we can better meet the needs of our customers for decades to come,” said Jim Lentz, chief executive officer of Toyota North America. “This strategic re-thinking of how and where we build our products will create new opportunities for our company, our business partners and our team members across the region.”

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