Toyota Hikes Staff at Mississippi Factory

Toyota Motor Corp. is spending $170 million and hiring 400 workers at its factory in Blue Springs, Miss., to make next-generation Corolla small sedans next year.

The underutilized plant has produced Corollas since it opened in 2011. Last year it built 155,000 of the cars, Bloomberg News reports.

The Blue Springs complex originally was to make Highlander SUVs, but that model was assigned to a factory in Indiana. Plans to produce Prius hybrid sedans also fell through.

The factory acquired Corolla production when Toyota shut down its NUMMI plant in California, later selling that facility to Tesla Inc. Toyota tells Bloomberg it hopes the new model will enable the factory to reach its design capacity of 170,000 vehicles per year.