Toyota Motor Corp. is set to announce a C$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion) expansion of its Canadian operations to build the RAV4 sport utility vehicle, a bet on the nation’s manufacturing amid a cloud of uncertainty from ongoing Nafta talks.
The Japanese automaker is slated to make an announcement Friday afternoon at its facility in Cambridge, Ontario, alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. The expansion in Cambridge and nearby Woodstock will create 450 jobs, supported by C$110 million in federal funding and possibly provincial support, said two people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified before the official announcement. The two plants west of Toronto now employ about 8,000 people, and made more than 600,000 vehicles last year.
Toyota and other automakers are shifting focus to meet consumers’ growing preference for SUVs over cars. Toyota, the world’s second-biggest carmaker, has already announced it’ll move assembly of the Corolla compact to the U.S. to make room for RAV4 output. During 2017, Toyota sold 407,594 RAV4s in the U.S., topping Camry sedan sales for the first time.
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The auto industry is at the heart of ongoing Nafta talks, with ministers due to meet Monday in Washington. The U.S. wants more cars and auto parts made in North America and is proposing to raise the share of content sourced from the region to 75 percent from the current 62.5 percent. The countries are pushing for a deal in principle this month in hopes of passing it in the current U.S. congress, and before Mexico’s July 1 elections.