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Toyota Motor North America plans will spend $383 million at plants in four different states to support the production of 4-cyl. engines that can be used in hybrid cars and trucks as part of the company’s commitment to vehicle electrification.
“Toyota customers want vehicles that are fuel-efficient and electrified,” says Norm Bafunno, Toyota senior vice president-Unit Manufacturing and Engineering. The money will be spent at Toyota sites in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, he says.
During the first quarter of 2022, electrified vehicles, almost all of them hybrids, accounted for 26% of TMNA’s U.S. sales, according to the company’s sales reports. Toyota and Lexus now sell a total of 18 electrified models and three more electrified models will be introduced this summer, TMNA says.
The largest share of the new investment, $222 million, will be spent at the TMNA engine plant in Huntsville, AL, where Toyota Alabama will create a new 4-cyl. production line with the capacity to produce engines for both combustion and hybrid-electric powertrains.
The Huntsville plant (pictured, below), which currently has the capacity to build 900,000 engines annually, will expand its footprint by 114,000 sq.-ft. (10,590 sq.-m), marking the plant’s sixth building expansion since 2003.
Another $109 million will be spent at Toyota Missouri’s plant in Troy, MO. The new investment will provide new equipment for making 4-cyl. engine heads on three production lines. The plant has the capacity to build more than 3 million cylinder heads annually.
TMNA also will invest $36 million at Toyota Tennessee in Jackson, TN. Toyota Tennessee plans to update equipment to build new 4-cyl. engine blocks at the plant, which currently has the capacity to produce more than 2 million engine blocks annually.
At Toyota Kentucky in Georgetown, KY, which as the world’s largest Toyota plant produces seven different Toyota and Lexus vehicles, TMNA plans to spend $16 million to expand the flexibility of the 4-cyl. engine production line to better position the plant to meet customer demand. The powertrain plant at Georgetown can produce up to 600,000 units annually and can produce both 4- and 6-cyl. engines.
Over the years, Toyota has invested $8.5 billion in the Georgetown engine and assembly plants.
As plans to advance electrified vehicle production move into high gear, TMNA is boosting engineering support across its North American operations by adding 220 new positions to its Georgetown-based Production Engineering Div., which serves as the go–between for design and manufacturing.
Toyota’s U.S. plants produce half of the vehicles it sells in the U.S., and its North American assembly facilities produce more than three-quarters of the vehicles it sells in the U.S.
Last month, TMNA also announced plans to invest $27 million in its oldest U.S. plant, a small stamping operation in Long Beach, CA, that opened 50 years ago.
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