Toyota Realigns N. American Manufacturing, Confirms Mexico Plant

Toyota Motor Corp. confirms widespread reports that it will open a new factory in Guanajuato, Mexico, in 2019 to make as many as 200,000 Corolla small sedans per year.

The $1 billion plant will be Toyota's 15th in North America and its first new factory in the region since 2011.

The Mexico facility also will be the first to embrace the Toyota New Global Architecture. TNGA is a multi-model powertrain/platform approach to design and manufacturing. The system fosters parts sharing and more efficient use of the company's supply chain. Toyota adds that developing cars and their powertrains simultaneously will result in lighter and more compact components and vehicles with better performance.

The new factory is part of a broader realignment of Toyota's manufacturing operations in North America.

The Mexican plant will assume Corolla production currently handled by Toyota's Cambridge North factory in Ontario. By 2019 Cambridge North and Cambridge South also will be upgraded to the TNGA system. Similarly, Toyota will give its RAV4 crossover vehicle plant in Woodstock, Ont., a major TNGA overhaul by 2019.

The company says all three Canadian factories will switch output to unspecified "higher-value" midsize vehicles by the end of the decade.