Toyota To Double US Unit Truck Engine Output By 2005

TOKYO July 15, 2003; Kazuhiro Shimamura writing for Dow Jones Newswires reported that Toyota Motor Corp. (TM or 7203) said Tuesday it will double its output capacity at a U.S. engine-making unit by 2005.

The subsidiary in Alabama will start manufacturing six-cylinder engines for pickup trucks from mid-2005 in addition to eight-cylinder engines, raising its capacity to 250,000 units a year from the current 120,000, Toyota said.

The Alabama unit, set up in June 2001, began production of the eight-cylinder engines for the Tundra full-size pickup trucks in April this year with a 350- strong work force.

The planned output expansion will cost $20 million and create 150 new jobs, the Japanese automaker said. Toyota's overall engine production capacity in North America will increase to 1.29 million units a year. Toyota made around 883,000 vehicles in North America last fiscal year.

The new six-cylinder engines to be made at the Alabama plant will be used in the Tundra model as well as in Tacoma pickup trucks produced in the U.S. and Mexico.