Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Crossovers/CUVs, Toyota
Toyota planning new crossover for Kentucky plant
Toyota Motor Corp. is apparently looking into adding a new model to the assembly line at its Georgetown, Kentucky facility. That's the plant we've recently covered regarding union issues. Georgetown is currently building nothing but Camrys right now, so adding a new crossover to the mix "would help ease the plant's dependence on Camry sedans." Sure, like five million Camrys indicates they need a change. They have already added Camry Hybrid production, but it's never a bad idea to diversify to allow for market fluctuations.
The plant update would likely cost around $400 million, but wouldn't add overall production capacity or swell the work force. If and when another model is added, it is likely to be a new crossover, which would require Toyota to shift some Camry production to other facilities. They would also have to be able to build this new crossover in other Toyota plants to meet global demand. With a potential $400 million on the line, it's not surprising to hear that the Kentucky legislature is working on an incentive package for the expansion.
[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Noremac 3:36PM (4/09/2007)
Spell check that title, you spell it like you're from Kentucky....not that there is anything wrong with that....
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roadside observer 4:07PM (4/09/2007)
Wow. The state of Kentucky can't seem to give highly-profitable Toyota enough cash. Someone tell me again why a company making more than $10 billion in annual profits needs a taxpayer handout?
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Mike 4:13PM (4/09/2007)
More government funding for foreign companies, just what the American economy needed. Let Toyota foot the entire bill, it was already stated there will be no more jobs associated with the cost why does the local government need to spend tax dollars to ease Toyota's financial burden? Especially when they are having record profits.
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Lithous 4:22PM (4/09/2007)
Nice diversification move. Let's diversify a fairly large sedan with an SUV (oh no, wait, SUV is a dirty word), I mean CUV. Such a great move. With gas going down, down... oh wait, it is going up. I forgot, it is America's Sweetheart we're talking about... Great move!!!!!!
I just hope the interior is as ugly as the rest of the truck/SUVs that Toyota makes. GM are you listening? Make trucks and SUVs with ugly, ugly interiors. Make your flagship seller have a bunch of silvery plastic (see GPX CD players from the 1990's). You can't lose.
BTW, how dare anyone question why Toyota needs tax payer hand outs. Leave that kind of questioning for thoese companies that have not done a thing for America like GM and Ford. That is like questioning why a televangelist has a multi-million dollar home (because they deserve it. Any company who can take away 10K jobs from the competitor while adding a whole 2K deserves every penny of it)
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BCM 4:34PM (4/09/2007)
OK, if the plant expansion makes so much economic sense for Toyota, why do they need additional taxpayer-funded subsidies?
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CaliberSRT4 4:35PM (4/09/2007)
Told you so.
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Andrew 5:51PM (4/09/2007)
This is supposed to be the model that's based off the FT-SX concept, right?
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sak 3:36PM (4/10/2007)
The Georgetown plant also builds the very popular Avalon sedan and the not as popular Solara coupe. The Camry output is in the 400,000 range annually.
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sem 2:22AM (4/11/2007)
I know one of the new cars is supposed to be the Ace. I don't know if that is the right spelling or not because no information other than what I know has been released but there is a model of the Ace on display at the Toyota plant this is only open to employees. This is the cuv. This cuv will not be availible in a hybrid at first but later on will be availible as a hybrid. Solora is going to be replaced with the cuv. One has to think since there will be an empty convertible line...will the new Supra be made in Kentucky as well? We will just have to see.
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sem 11:36AM (4/11/2007)
#3 you are so pathetic! The reason why the Union is not in Toyota is because plants like Ford and GM have poor sales because of the laziness of the employees...results of the Union. Ford has nothing...at least in the Kentucky plants...but druggies building cars. They are not drug tested like they should be. They man hours are taken because if one person makes a mistake on a car they cannot fix that problem...they have other people that fix that problem for them. These people tend to nt do anything and waste time and money...quality of Ford and GM suck...look at the sales and consumer reports. Top three cars were Toyotas, Lexas and Honda. Chyslers and Dodge were dead last!
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