Toyota to invest $250 million in Alabama engine plant

By Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News / September 24, 2004

Toyota Motor Corp. will invest $250 million in its Huntsville, Ala., engine plant to more than double its output of V-8 engines for light trucks.

The investment will give Toyota U.S.-made V-8s for both the full-sized Sequoia SUV made in Princeton, Ind., and the Tundra pickup that will be produced in San Antonio.

Huntsville builds 120,000 V-8s annually only for the Indiana-built Tundra pickup. When the expansion is completed in late 2006, the plant will supply 270,000 V-8s annually.

The move will supply all of Toyota’s planned V-8 engine needs for North America. The automaker imports some of its V-8 engines from Japan.

Huntsville is in the midst of one expansion. Last year, Toyota began a project to build V-6 engines there to supply Tacoma pickups and some Tundras. Toyota also is adding engine production in California to support Toyota’s new Tacoma pickup plant near Tijuana, Mexico.

Dennis Cuneo, Toyota Motor North America senior vice president, said the latest investment will give Toyota a total North American capacity of 1.44 million engines annually after 2006.

That is still short of the number of vehicles the company expects to build here.

Toyota will have a vehicle production capacity here of 1.6 million vehicles at the same time.

Cuneo said that most of the difference will be in niche vehicles with special engines, including some versions of the Toyota Matrix.