Toyota Invests $1.3 Billion in Kentucky Plant

Toyota Motor Corp. is investing $1.3 billion to ready its Georgetown, Ky., assembly plant for this year’s launch of the next-generation Camry midsize car.

The 2018-model Camry will ride on Toyota’s New Global Architecture that will underpin a variety of new and updated cars. Toyota says the platform will provide enhanced fuel economy, more responsive performance and help shorten the development cycle of other upcoming models.

As part of the investment, the Georgetown plant will get updated production equipment and a new paint shop. The plant also will incorporate new manufacturing processes that will enable greater flexibility to quickly switch production runs based on customer demand, according to the carmaker.

The Georgetown plant, which was opened in 1986, produced more than 500,000 vehicles last year. In addition to the Camry, the facility makes the Lexus ES luxury car.

Toyota says the Kentucky complex is its largest plant in the world. Employment at the facility has reached an all-time high of 8,200 people with the recent addition of more than 700 workers to support the Camry launch.

The Georgetown investment is part of a planned $10 billion program Toyota has budgeted for its U.S. operations over the next five years. The company also is expanding production of the Tacoma pickup at its plant in Tijuana, Mexico, and plans to open a new facility in central Mexico that will build the Corolla compact car starting in 2019.