Toyota Picks Mississippi

Toyota Picks Mississippi

The Wall Street Journal and The Nikkei, a Japanese business newspaper, report today that Toyota, hungry for additional North American manufacturing capacity, picked Tupelo, Miss., as the site for its eighth assembly plant. Mississippi’s governor is expected to make the announcement today.

The Wall Street Journal further reported Toyota’s top management has adjusted its plans for the plant, which has been in the works for some time, because of growing concern about the health of the U.S. auto market. The plant has been scaled back in terms of capacity to 150,000 units a year, down from 200,000, and start of production is pushed back from 2009 to 2010. It is expected to produce the next-generation Toyota Highlander crossover, the latest version of which was unveiled at the recent Chicago auto show (pictured).

Toyota also is trying to better balance its imports versus domestically produced vehicles. Two-thirds of Toyota’s sales had been North American built but imports rose to 54 percent last year. Toyota and the Japanese government constantly fret about political repercussions from too many imports and Toyota’s continued success at the expense of U.S. automakers.

Mississippi -- and the birthplace of rock 'n roller Elvis Presley -- apparently beat sites in Tennessee and Arkansas.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.