Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada said today that it will increase capacity of its RAV4 SUV to 200,000 vehicles annually at its Woodstock, Ontario assembly plant. The C$80 million investment will result in about 400 new jobs between now and implementation in early 2013. A revised RAV4 is due then.
The volume increase of 50,000 units comes as sales of the compact RAV4 are down 5% to 22,500 units year-to-date in the face of severe competition from the revised Honda CR-V and the aging Ford Escape.
“We are optimistic that the market is coming back,” said TMMC Chairman Ray Tanguay.
TMMC currently manufactures the Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Toyota RAV4, and
the Lexus RX 350 vehicles in its plants in Cambridge, ON and one plant in Woodstock, ON.
The company currently employs approximately 6,500.
