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Toyota Confirms Lexus Production in Kentucky
Toyota Motor Corp. will begin making Lexus ES 350 luxury sedans at its assembly plant in Georgetown, Ky., in 2015, as expected.
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Toyota Motor Corp. will begin making Lexus ES 350 luxury sedans at its assembly plant in Georgetown, Ky., in 2015, as expected.
Toyota will spend $360 million and will receive $147 million in state tax incentives to add a dedicated Lexus assembly line at the factory. The expansion will create 750 jobs and boost the plant's annual capacity by 50,000 units to 550,000 vehicles.
The Georgetown facility already makes the Toyota Venza crossover, Avalon and Camry sedans and hybrid variants of the two car models. Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear says the company plans to invest another $171 million in other unspecified plant upgrades.
Increasing the factory's capacity is part of Toyota's dual strategies of moving production out of Japan to insulate against the fluctuating yen and building models where they are sold.
The Lexus RX crossover and ES sedan are the brand's two top-selling models in the U.S., with 2012 volume of 95,400 units and 56,200 units, respectively. Toyota began building the RX the only other Lexus model made outside Japan at its plant in Cambridge, Ont., in 2003.
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