MEXICO CITY — Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America Inc. said April 15 it will build a $1 billion manufacturing facility in central Mexico to produce the Corolla compact sedan.
Scheduled to open in Guanajuato state in 2019, when it will produce the 2020 model year Corolla, the plant will employ 2,000 and have a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles a year, Toyota said in a news release.
In addition, Toyota is investing $440 million to expand production in Guangzhou, China, which will increase its capacity by 100,000 vehicles annually.
In a news release, Toyota said the China investment is “vital to further improve the competitiveness of the existing lines and respond to future demand for stable growth in the Chinese market; the largest market in the world and where a number of automakers have been competing.”
The Japanese auto maker did not mention injection molding as part of its future investments in the release. But the company invariably installs in-house plastics production for key interior and exterior parts at its vehicle manufacturing plants.
Toyota also said it will upgrade its Cambridge, Ontario, plant as it shift production of Corollas to Mexico. The Canadian site will instead make mid-sized, more high value vehicles.
The Mexico plant, Toyota's 15th in North America and its first since 2011, will be the first in the world designed from the ground up with Toyota New Global Architecture production engineering technologies, the company said. TNGA uses modular assembly with vehicles sharing many of the same components to save money and improve efficiency.