Toyota investments in Mexico, China to usher in new cost-efficiency strategy - Automotive News (subscription) (blog)
to spend nearly $1. 5 billion on a new factory in Mexico and a new line in China to support sales growth in key markets and underpin a global overhaul in the way it builds vehicles. The new facilities will deploy low-cost manufacturing processes and be the first in the world designed and built from the ground up to handle Toyota’s new modular platforms. Together, the expansions will boost Toyota’s global capacity by 300,000 vehicles a year, from around 9. 8 million units. In China, Toyota will invest 52. 2 billion yen ($440 million) to add a third line to its plant in Guangzhou. The effort includes developing a new generation of platforms that will underpin half of Toyota’s lineup by 2020. It breaks the three-year “intentional pause” on greenfield sites ordered in April 2013 by President Akio Toyoda. During the moratorium, Toyota eked out more capacity from existing plants, while laying the groundwork for the new modular vehicle platform and efficient manufacturing processes. “This strategic re-thinking of how and where we build our products will create new opportunities for our company, our business partners and our team members across the region,” Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, said in a statement. Source: www.autonews.com
