The Georgetown plant currently assembles the Camry, Avalon and Venza models as well as their hybrid counterparts. The plant already employs about 6,600 people.
Toyota said it will invest $360 million to build the Lexus assembly line, boosting Georgetown’s annual vehicle production to 550,000 a year. The company made the announcement at simultaneous news conferences Friday in New York and Georgetown.
“It is fitting that the first country to build the ES outside of Japan is the United States,” Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, the company’s top executive, said in New York. “This is the home for Lexus. It was where the brand was founded and it is still the biggest market for the luxury brand.”
Toyota started the Lexus luxury brand in 1990 and has since sold nearly 1.2 million ES sedans in the U.S., Toyoda said.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said Toyota would invest a total of $531 million in the Georgetown plant, but the company gave no details of how the remaining $171 million would be spent. A top auto industry analyst said he would be surprised if the company didn’t move more production to the factory.
Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive, a firm that tracks auto production, said a $531 million expansion should bring enough space to build even more vehicles every year. Toyota, he said, likely has plans to add more models and employees in the future.
“Fifty thousand (sedans) is a starting point,” he said. “I would be floored if for a half a billion dollars, that the 50,000 didn’t turn into between 100,000 and 150,000,” he said.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved $146.5 million in state tax incentives on Wednesday to help with the cost of the expansion.