Toyota Highlander production commences in Indiana

Toyota Highlander production commences in Indiana

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Crossover, Toyota

2008 Toyota Highlander Sport - click above image for hi-res image gallery

The 2010 Highlander is now officially Toyota's 12th North American-built vehicle, with the midsized crossover rolling down the line at the Japanese automaker's Princeton, Indiana plant. Toyota has also streamlined its worldwide production in the process, as building the Highlander here in the States helps keep its West Virginia engine plant busy while Toyota's 250 suppliers increase production. Toyota says the addition of the Highlander to the Indiana plant also adds security to the 4,200 employees earning solid wages at the facility, and it notes that the company didn't lay off any hourly workers when production was slowed due to the economic downturn and plant retooling.

Bringing the Highlander to Indiana was made possible when Toyota consolidated production of the Tundra pickup from Indiana down to the purpose-built truck factory in Texas. At one time, the Highlander was scheduled to be built at Toyota's Mississippi plant, a facility that was never completed due in part to Toyota's lagging sales. The world's largest automaker by volume decided that it would be better to utilize the capacity that it already had in the States and abroad, and bolting together the Highlander in Indiana was a big part of that decision. The Highlander will be built alongside the Sienna minivan and the Sequoia SUV. Hit the jump to read over the Toyota press release.


Gallery: Review: 2008 Toyota Highlander Sport



[Source: Toyota]Continue reading Toyota Highlander production commences in Indiana

Toyota Highlander production commences in Indiana originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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