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Toyota-Mazda Shared Plant To Crop Up In Alabama Or North Carolina
15 Nov 2017, 14:32 UTC · by Mircea Panait
/ Home / News / Industry
Building and selling cars is big business. And in addition to big, it’s complicated business for one too many reasons, chief among which is legislation. In the U.S., for example, it’s easier for foreign automakers to build cars locally because the state will offer incentives. This, in turn, creates jobs, and the pricing advantage over imports is nothing to scoff at.
9 photos Toyota and Mazda find themselves in this situation, with the two announcing that they’re planning on spending $1.6 billion on a plant in the United States that will create 4,000 jobs. The factory would be operational by 2021, but there’s a catch with this promise. And that catch is, Toyota and Mazda have refused to spell out the location where the plant will be.
The background story originates with Donald Trump, who attacked Toyota with a “big border tax” over the automaker’s plan to construct a factory in Guanajuato, Mexico. There, Toyota would’ve produced the Corolla, but once President Trump got in on the action, the Japanese automaker decided that it would be better to build the Tacoma in Mexico.
Trump’s attack wasn’t in vain, for the POTUS convinced Toyota to relegate Corolla production to the United States, at the factory this story is about. Mazda joined Toyota in its ambitious plan, with Mazda announcing that it'll build “new crossover vehicles” at the yet-to-be-constructed plant.
According to Bloomberg, the search for a location for the Toyota-Mazda plant has been narrowed to two states: Alabama and North Carolina. All that’s left to do now is for state officials to sweeten the deal, with Toyota-Mazda expected to take the better offer as far as incentives are concerned.
Whichever state wins, the shared factory is actually a victory for the Trump administration. After all, it is “the first new auto assembly plant to be announced during the tenure of President Donald Trump,” and that’s good news considering Ford will source the next-generation Focus from China.
Editor's note:
Mazda2 Sedan-based Scion iA pictured.
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