March 24, 2008 -- Toyota Motor Corp. announced on Friday plans to open a factory in Miyagi Prefecture to begin manufacturing small-displacement engines for subcompact cars in around 2010. This will be the company's fifth engine plant in Japan and will likely start up with an annual production capacity of roughly 200,000 units.
The investment is estimated at about ¥20-30 billion yen. Expected to be built near the town of Taiwa, the engine factory is Toyota’s first in the northern Japanese region of Tohoku and will manufacture 1.5-liter-class engines to be used in subcompact sedans and other small vehicles. The motors will be supplied to a Kanto Auto Works Ltd. factory in Kanegasaki, Iwate Prefecture, as well as a car assembly plant that Central Motor Co. aims to launch around 2010 in Ohira, Miyagi Prefecture. Toyota plans to assemble 9.95 million vehicles worldwide this year, a roughly 50 percent increase from five years ago. Establishing the new Central Motor factory will lift the Toyota group's car production capacity in Tohoku to roughly 400,000 units a year, making the region its third-biggest production center in Japan.
Abstracted from Asia Pulse
