At a press conference today in New York City, Toyota president Akio Toyoda & North American CEO Jim Lentz officially announced that the Lexus ES 350 will be built at the Georgetown manufacturing plant in Kentucky — from the press release:
The move will generate 750 new jobs. To support the new dedicated assembly line, Toyota will invest $360 million in the Georgetown plant.
About 50,000 Lexus vehicles a year will be produced, bringing the plant’s total annual production capacity to more than 550,000 vehicles. It will be the first time the ES will be assembled outside of Japan.The ES is Lexus’s bestselling sedan, with approximately 58,850 vehicles sold in North America in 2012 — including 56,158 in the U.S. Projections for Toyota’s production volume at the company’s Kyushu plant in Japan have not changed. The company remains committed to building 3 million vehicles per year in Japan, including Lexus models, as previously announced.
The press conference was broadcast online:
(The full transcript of the press conference is also available on the Lexus website.)
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