Toyota Motor Corp. is resurrecting plans to complete a plant in Mississippi 18 months after the facility was mothballed as U.S. sales collapsed.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will begin installing assembly equipment at the facility in Blue Springs, Miss., with a goal of starting production of Corolla compact cars by late 2011, the company said Thursday. The decision reverses earlier plans to use the plant to build Highlander sport-utility vehicles and Prius hybrids.
Toyota completed construction of the $1.3 billion plant last year, without installing machinery, after saying in December 2008 it couldn’t continue with plans to make the Prius there amid market turmoil. Corollas for the U.S. currently are supplied by a Cambridge, Ontario, plant and exports from Japan.
