Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama (TMMAL) plans to boost its annual V8 engine production capacity to 270,000 units and to invest US$250 million (27 billion yen) in a new production line, as well as create 300 additional jobs, bringing total annual engine output to 400,000 units in 2006 (including V6 engines from mid-2005).
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With this increase, Toyota’s North American annual engine production capacity will be 1.44 million units.
The V8 engines will be used in the Tundra pickup truck to be produced by Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas starting in 2006 and, from 2006, in the Sequoia SUV now being produced by Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana (TMMI). TMMAL already produces V8 engines for the Tundra produced by TMMI and will continue to do so.
TMMAL was established in 2001 as the first Toyota plant outside Japan to produce V8 engines. It started making the engines for the TMMI-made Tundra in 2003 and is to start production of V6 engines for the Tundra and the Tacoma produced by New United Motor Manufacturing and Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California from mid-2005. TMMAL employees, currently numbering around 350, are expected to increase to around 500 in mid-2005. The additional 300 jobs will bring the total to around 800 in 2006.
“This is the second major expansion of the Toyota plant in the past 14 months and is yet another sign that Alabama’s economy is on the right track,” state governor Bob Riley noted. “The fact that Toyota has essentially doubled its presence in Alabama shows not only that this is a truly successful company with a great team of workers, but that it also has a lot of confidence in the economy of our state.”
