Automakers Toyota and Mazda announced on January 10 that they have selected Huntsville, U.S. state of Alabama, as the site of their new joint-venture manufacturing plant, which will have the capacity to build 300,000 vehicles annually, with production split evenly between two lines for each company to produce Mazda’s crossover model that will be newly introduced to the North American market and the Toyota Corolla.
The joint venture represents a US$1.6 billion investment that Mazda and Toyota plan to make with equal funding contributions. The site for the new plant is in Huntsville, located close to Toyota’s Alabama plant. The facility is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs and production is expected to begin by 2021.
The State of Alabama is the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks in the U.S. For Toyota, this joint-venture plant will be its 11th U.S. manufacturing facility and is said to represent its continued commitment in the U.S., in addition to the US$10 billion investment over the next five years that was announced in January 2017. Read more here.
