Toyota Nears Completion of $800 Million Expansion in Princeton, Indiana

    HOUSTON--Oct. 22, 2001--The following is an advisory by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Inc.; Houston, Texas). Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America (Erlanger, KY), a division of Toyota Motor Corporation (Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is nearing completion of an $800 million expansion at its Princeton, Indiana assembly plant. Located on 1,160 acres, the original plant was built in 1998 and is the sole manufacturer of the new Tundra full-size pickup truck. The Tundra is Toyota's first entry into the full-size truck market and the Princeton plant produced 56,176 Tundras in 1999 for U.S. and Canadian export markets.
    Construction started in the spring of 2001 to expand the original 2 million square foot facility by adding 1.8 million square feet. The investment of $800 million at this facility will raise the annual production capacity of Tundras and Sequoias from 120,000 units to 200,000 units. The facility houses operations in stamping, body welding, painting, plastics and assembly of the Tundra pickup truck, Sequoia full-size sport utility vehicle, and the Sienna minivan, which is scheduled to start production in 2003. Once this expansion is complete, Toyota's investment at Princeton, Indiana will total $2 billion, with a capacity of 300,000 units and employment expectancy of 4,300 people. Employment is currently 2,460 at this facility.
    Toyota employs more than 30,000 people in North America, including approximately 20,000 at its manufacturing plants in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, and Ontario and British Columbia in Canada. Once the Indiana-built Sequoias debut, Toyota will produce eight vehicles in North America; including the Avalon, Camry, Camry Solara, Corolla, Sequoia, Sienna, Tacoma and Tundra.