With many automakers deciding to move to a completely electric vehicle and eliminating gasoline-powered engines, the World's largest automaker is taking a different path. Toyota announced an $803 million investment at its Princeton, Indiana auto-manufacturing plant is in preparation to introduce two, all-new yet-to-be-named vehicles to its current line-up.
One of those vehicles is a Toyota model, and the other is a Lexus. The two new electric vehicles will join a full lineup of electrified vehicles that accounts for more than 40 percent of all alternative powertrain vehicles sold in the United States. These alternative powertrains include battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell electrics, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids.
This investment and product diversification will also add approximately 1,400 new jobs at Toyota Indiana, which will join a robust and dynamic workforce that has more than 7,000 working at the manufacturing center.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana currently assembles the all-hybrid Sienna minivan, Highlander/Highlander Hybrid SUV, and Sequoia full-size SUV. Later this year, Sequoia production will move to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas in San Antonio as the company continues to improve the operational speed, competitiveness, and transformation at its North American vehicle assembly plants based on platforms and common architectures.
The $803 million investment will be used to prepare the manufacturing line for the new vehicles, production-employee training, as well as provide supplier re-tooling at their facilities. Since the first Tundra - the original Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana vehicle - rolled off the production line in 1998, Toyota’s total investment in the Princeton site is $6.6 billion.
The plant has the capacity to assemble more than 420,000 vehicles annually.
The release date of these vehicles has yet to be announced.
