Georgetown is now the largest Toyota plant in the world.
In December 1985, Shoichiro Toyoda said Scott County would be the site for Toyota’s (NYSE:TM) first wholly-owned vehicle manufacturing plant in the U.S. – at great expense to Kentucky taxpayers.
Honda, of course, had beat Toyota by beginning what became wildly successful U.S. operations at Marysville, Ohio starting in 1982. The Accord was the first Japanese-nameplate car assembled in the United States.
The success of the Accord set the path for Honda’s huge American expansion, which propelled it into the automotive big leagues at a time when Toyota and Nissan executives in Japan were scratching their heads over Honda’s U.S. success, which far outpaced its business in Japan. It was an early indication of the need to think globally, not locally.
Marysville proved that building cars in America was a viable proposition to sleeping Nissan and Toyota who ultimately followed with U.S. plants. Now the all-new Honda NSX supercar is entering production at a new Performance Manufacturing Center inside Honda’s former North American Logistics facility adjacent to its Marysville plant.
In an anniversary ceremony at Georgetown this week, Shoichiro Toyoda said it was “one of the proudest moments since the company produced its first prototype vehicle.” Today Toyota pays 8,000 non-union workers as a result of a growing $6 billion investment. Georgetown is now the largest Toyota plant in the world. It all began during May 1988 when the first Camry was produced there.
This year, annual production at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky will likely exceed 550,000 vehicles and 600,000 engines. The vehicles manufactured in Georgetown have some of the highest locally-based content, up to 75%, including the Camry. The plant also produces the Lexus brand, after opening a new line in 2015 when the currency value of a strong Japanese Yen forced it to hedge.
With construction underway on a new production engineering campus that is expected to be completed in 2017, Toyota will soon relocate about 300 engineering positions to Georgetown. The 250,000 sq. ft. building will include a test lab and provide an innovative work space for 700 employees. This expansion represents a local investment of $80 million.
Toyota says it is considering plans to undergo a major plant makeover that would include the renovation or replacement of aging equipment and constructing an all-new paint shop.
The plant is also looking at new technologies that will streamline production processes, improve part handling and logistics and increase production flexibility. “For us, change is natural. It’s what we do,” said James. “Most importantly, changes like this will allow us to build ever-better cars for our customers.”
The Center for Automotive Research in a study commissioned in part by Toyota says that every Toyota job in Kentucky creates nearly three more. As of 2015, Toyota’s workforce made up 1.3% of the state’s total employment, and its payroll of more than $1.9 billion accounted for 1.6% of Kentucky’s total compensation.
During the past 50 years, Toyota has built more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where it operates 14 manufacturing plants (ten in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Toyota has 1,800 North American dealerships – 1,500 in the U.S. It sold more than 2.8 million cars and trucks, just under 2.5 million in the U.S.) during 2015.
