Toyota to expand Ind. truck plant
$500M project will provide 1,000 jobs Wednesday, April 1, 1998MIKE SMITH
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- Toyota Motor Corp. Tuesday said it will build a $500 million expansion to its pickup truck assembly plant under construction in southwestern Indiana, creating an additional 1,000 jobs.
Expansion of the Gibson County plant will allow the manufacture of another line of vehicles in addition to the new T150 full-size pickups already slated for production and will eventually boost total employment to 2,300.
Toyota's investment in the project will rise to $1.2 billion, and the state will provide another $17 million in tax credits, training grants and infrastructure improvements.
Toyota executives would not say what new vehicles are planned, but some industry sources have speculated that it will be the Harrier, a luxury sport-utility vehicle.
The company plans to make 100,000 T150 pickups a year, with production to begin in December. Production of another 50,000 vehicles annually is expected to begin in late 2000.
The company cited the state incentive package, cooperation from state and local leaders and market demands as reasons for expansion.
''It's very unusual for us to expand a plant that we haven't started production in yet, but the experience to date has been very positive,'' said Dennis Cuneo, vice president of legal, environmental and external affairs for Toyota's North American operations.
Speculation about an expansion has swirled since shortly after ground was broken for the plant in May 1996.
Japan's leading business newspaper in December named the plant as a likely spot in North America to produce the Lexus RX 300, Toyota's new luxury sport-utility vehicle. But Mr. Cuneo said it would not be a Lexus product.
''It's going to be a Toyota-badged product,'' he said. An announcement is expected in the next few months.
Indiana and Gibson County put together an incentive package valued at up to $72 million to win the plant initially.
The state's chief incentive, a tax credit given to the company on all state income taxes paid by its employees, was open-ended and presumably could be expanded to cover additional jobs.
The state is awarding a $1 million training grant to Toyota in support of the planned expansion. Toyota also will receive tax credits of up to $10.2 million in 10 years.
The Indiana Department of Transportation will provide the plant with road and rail access, valued at $3.5 million, and will forgive a $1.7 million loan made to Gibson County to provide road improvements for the original Toyota plant.
Current plans call for two shifts working five days a week, which allows room for additional workers and additional production at the formerly rural, 1,000-acre site.
At a glance
About Toyota's plant being built in Gibson County:
·Investment: $1.2 billion after expansion.
·Jobs: 2,300 after expansion.
·Capacity: 150,000 vehicles a year after expansion.
·Plant size: 2 million square feet after expansion.
·Operations: Stamping, body weld, paint, plastics, assembly.
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