Toyota builds 30 millionth vehicle in US
The company has been manufacturing here for 35 years.
Toyota just surpassed an important manufacturing milestone. On Tuesday, the Japanese automaker announced its 30 millionth US-built vehicle rolled off the assembly line.
The model that earned this special honor happened to be one of Toyota's most advanced vehicles, a 2021 Sienna minivan, which comes standard with a fuel-sipping hybrid drivetrain. It was screwed together at the company's factory in Princeton, Indiana, in the state's southwest corner, near the borders with Illinois and Kentucky.
That facility is one of 10 manufacturing plants the Capital T operates in the US, though it has an additional four elsewhere in North America. In one form or another, Toyota has been in the US for more than 60 years. And even though its early days were a bit shaky, it's been growing at a seemingly unstoppable pace. Based on 2020 sales, it's the world's largest automaker, selling more than 9.5 million vehicles globally last year, including sub-brands such as Lexus and Daihatsu. The US is a huge market for the company, with 2.1 million new vehicles sold in 2020, around one in six of which was a hybrid.
Toyota's American manufacturing got its start back in 1986 when the automaker operated a joint-venture plant near San Francisco. The New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. facility, or NUMMI for short, was the result of a tie-up with GM. Toyota assembled Corolla small cars there, though the plant is currently owned by Tesla.
With its mammoth footprint and golden reputation in the automotive industry, Toyota isn't going anywhere. In fact, it pledged to invest $13 billion in the US between 2017 and 2021, which it achieved a year early. The outlay created more than 6,500 jobs.
