BLUE SPRINGS, Miss., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build a $1.3 billion assembly plant near Tupelo, Miss., to meet surging U.S. demand, the automaker said Tuesday.
The factory, due to open in 2010, will make about 150,000 Highlander sport utility vehicles a year, Toyota said. The vehicle is currently only made in Japan.
Toyota said the plant, on 1,700 acres, will employ 2,000 people.
The site in Blue Springs, Miss., 20 miles northwest of Tupelo, was chosen over sites in Tennessee and Arkansas, Toyota said.
Toyota's U.S. sales grew nearly 13 percent to 2.54 million vehicles last year, outpacing its U.S. production capacity, the company said.
Toyota, which may surpass General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker this year, opened a Tundra pickup-truck plant in Texas last fall. It plans to open a Camry auto plant in Indiana this year and a RAV4 compact crossover-SUV plant in Ontario in 2008.
Toyota increased capital spending 1.4 percent this year to a record $13.06 trillion to expand production.
