Toyota and Mazda team up for a plant

Toyota and Mazda to build $1.6 billion joint plant in Alabama - CNN Money https://apple.news/A8ldYHdqmRyK_MiBZZ_H5jA

no! It’s not clickbait!

Good for Alabama. Aside from the no union culture there, I wonder what they're giving up tax wise to get these factories? Probably doesn't matter, lots of good solid jobs. 

In the late 50’s everyone bailed the south for good Factory jobs in Chicago and Detroit.  Now the opposite.  

My father-in-law left a sleepy Alabama town to come to Chicago to put 30 years in at Fisher Body and retired in 1988.  

Article shows that Mazda might be building a crossover from the corolla shell

And here's the release from Mazda:

Montgomery, Alabama (January 10, 2018) – Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle joined Mazda (MZDAF) and Toyota (NYSE: TM) leaders today to announce the automakers have selected Huntsville, Alabama as the site of their new joint-venture manufacturing plant.

The new plant will have the capacity to build 300,000 vehicles annually, with production split evenly between two lines for each company to produce Mazda’s crossover model that will be newly introduced to the North American market and the Toyota Corolla.

The joint venture represents a $1.6 billion investment that Mazda and Toyota plan to make with equal funding contributions. The site for the new plant is in Huntsville, located approximately 14 miles from Toyota’s Alabama plant (Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama, Inc.). The facility is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs. Production is expected to begin by 2021.

“The partnership between Mazda and Toyota will expand innovative automotive manufacturing in Alabama,” Governor Ivey said. “Their decision to locate this new facility in Huntsville is a testament to the talented workforce in our state. We are proud that this partnership puts Alabama on the forefront of technology in this dynamic global industry.”

“With this announcement, our world changes overnight,” said Tommy Battle, mayor of Huntsville. “Mazda and Toyota, two of the world’s most innovative automakers, have created a legacy project that will provide jobs for decades to come for Huntsville and Alabama. It vaults Alabama to the top as an industry leader in producing the next generation of cars that will power our nation.”

Mazda Motor Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Masamichi Kogai and Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda joined Gov. Ivey and Mayor Battle for the announcement.

For Mazda, the plant comes on line in a significant year that will mark the start of the company’s second century of operation and second half-century of sales in the U.S. The automaker is enhancing its commitment to the U.S. market and will focus efforts on manufacturing and increasing sales in the country.

“Mazda makes cars with a clear vision of how we want to inspire people, contribute to society and help preserve the beauty of the earth. By making such cars here in Alabama, we hope that over time our plant will come to occupy a special place in the hearts of our employees and the local community. By making this plant a vibrant part of that community, we hope to work, learn and grow together with the people of Alabama and Huntsville,” Kogai said.

For Toyota, this joint-venture plant will be its 11th U.S. manufacturing facility and represents its continued commitment in the U.S., in addition to the $10 billion dollar investment over the next 5 years that was announced in January 2017.

“Our investment to establish a new vehicle assembly plant with Mazda builds on the strong success we have enjoyed in Alabama where we produce engines for the North American market,” Toyoda said. “Starting from 2021, I’m confident that we will run a highly competitive plant, by bringing together the expertise of Toyota and Mazda as well as the excellent Alabama workforce. We are committed to being another ‘best-in town’ company in the city of Huntsville and the state of Alabama, a new hometown for Toyota and Mazda.”

The State of Alabama is the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks nationally with a strong automotive manufacturing presence including Toyota’s engine plant in Huntsville, where Toyota employs 1,400 team members. With more than 150 Tier 1 and 2 automotive suppliers in the state as well as automakers, there are approximately 57,000 automotive manufacturing jobs in Alabama.

In the coming months, after obtaining approvals and authorization by antitrust agencies, the new joint venture will be established, and site preparations will begin with the start of production in 2021.

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 33 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 46,000 people (more than 36,000 in the U.S.).  Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold more than 2.6 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2017 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road today.

Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to assist more people move more places. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

It's going in right up the road from me.  I doubt they gave up too much in taxes as that is not a rich county anyway, and the increased employment and what they will pay will be a huge bump for them.  We already have a Toyota engine plant about 5 miles from where I am sitting, so there is a history here.  Alabama is turning into a car making capitol with Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, etc.    Toyota is a customer of ours so hopefully I will get to see it after completion.  

In unrelated news, Kimber announced they are also building a new production plant in Alabama.  They are landlocked now in gun unfriendly Yonkers NY.

Going in just a couple miles from my house. I live on the edge of the county it's being built in. Bringing jobs around here is great, I guess. Getting to be a big city here.

If Kimber comes here, maybe they can set up next door to the Remington factory that came here a couple years ago.

4,000 positions to be filled with this effort....works for me/USA