Toyota investing over $500M to launch US Lexus production
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—Toyota Motor Co. is expected to announce Friday plans to invest more than $500 million in its Georgetown, Ky., plant to move production of one of its Lexus luxury vehicles to the U.S. for the first time.
The world’s largest automaker already produces more than half of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. at various North American assembly plants. But it has, until now, limited production of its Lexus line almost exclusively to Japanese factories. Though the RX crossover is now produced in Canada, the Lexus ES will become the first luxury model – and the 11th Toyota vehicle assembled in the U.S.
Toyota is the last of the Japanese “Big Three” to move at least some luxury car production to the U.S. But like rivals Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., it has been hollowing out production in the home Japanese market due to concerns about exchange rates andpotential production issues underscored by the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that all but shut down the maker’s operations for much of the following nine months.
Source: NBCNews
