Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus has just announced the start of construction at their future assembly plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, their first ever US-based dedicated facility.
The factory will be part of the TMMK complex (Toyota’s largest in the US) already operational in the state and, as of fall 2015, will start producing the ES 350 sedan alongside the Camry, Venza and Avalon models. Up until now, all ES models were imported from Japan.
They plan to make it at a rate of 50,000 units per year, in the hope of filling the high demand for the model – over 72,000 of them found owners in 2013. That equates to an increase in sales over the previous year of 30 percent, and the ES should still gain some popularity this year too.
Total investment for the site will siphon some $360 million out of the company and the end result will make for the creation of 750 jobs and their largest production site in North America – they also build the RX350 and RX450h at the Cambridge factory in Canada too, but this will be on a larger scale, and fully dedicated to the brand.
By Andrei Nedelea
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