Aug. 4 (UPI) — Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda announced plans Friday for a new $1.6 billion factory to be built in the United States, and operational by 2021.
The companies didn’t specify the location of the new facility, where Toyota plans to build its Corolla model and Mazda will build new crossover vehicles for the U.S. market.
The companies said in a statement Friday that they will also collaborate on electric vehicle development and advanced safety technologies.
Toyota initially intended to build Corollas, the world’s best-selling model, in a new plant in Guadalajara, Mexico. President Donald Trump publicly criticized the plan earlier this year, threatening a “big border tax” on vehicles imported to the United States from the Mexico plant.
Toyota, which previously announced it will invest $10 billion to build vehicles in the United States, said Friday that trucks will be made in Guadalajara, and Corollas in the United States.
Trump, in a Twitter comment, called the decision “a great investment in American manufacturing!”
Toyota currently builds Corollas for the U.S. market in plants in Ontario, Canada, and Mississippi. Mazda built cars in Michigan in collaboration with the Ford Motor Co. but has not made cars in the United States in over a decade.
