Toyota had planned on beginning production of Priora at its Blue Springs plant in 2010, but those plans are now on hold indefinitely, according to the AP (via CNN Money). According to ToMoCo spokesfolks, construction of the plant is 90 percent complete, but installation of its machinery and tooling (the “most time-consuming elements”) has been delayed. And what of the 100-odd folks hired to oversee construction and install human resources plans? “Those people’s jobs are safe, and we’ll find things for them to do,” says Toyota’s Mike Goss. With weak sales affecting even the once-hot Prius, Toyota is responding quickly by holding off on a hiring binge until the market begins to recover. Consider the Tundra lesson learned, but in tough economic times those jobs will be missed. As will the $239m state incentive package, not to mention the $235m in tax revenue that the plant is expected to bring in over its first ten years of operation.
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Prius Production Plant Plans Postponed Precluding Passed Package, People’s Positions Pending.
This is exactly the kind of investment that the $25 billion energy department pool should be funding. The General Services Administration should commit to buying 100,000 US-built Priuses (Priori? Prii? whatever)and an additional 50k units per year. The government should also commit to funding plant conversion and buying 100,000 Ford Fusion hybrids if they build them in the US.
I understand how hard it is to spend money on plants right now, but it’s by far the cheapest time for them to get this done. If the market starts to warm back up and gas hits $3 in the next 12 months they’ll wish they had that plant ready to roll.
So does the state get its money back?
What about the new TMMC plant for the RAV4?
Toyota is looking at a pretty serious over-capacity problem…
Did I read that right? Toyota is getting $239m million to build a plant which will return $235m million over the next 10 years?
And what of the 100-odd folks hired to oversee construction and install human resources plans? “Those people’s jobs are safe, and we’ll find things for them to do,”
Good thing they’re not in the UAW or people would say stuff about “make work” or “Job Banks”. Toyota is such a noble, selfless company. Why we shouldn’t even call it a company. I bet they even have unicorns.
The General Services Administration should commit to buying 100,000 US-built Priuses (Priori? Prii? whatever)and an additional 50k units per year.
No doubt because the assistance Toyota gets from MITI just isn’t enough, that US taxpayers should help fund them as well.
I wonder if we can outsource Senator Shelby’s job to the Japanese. Though an argument can be made that he’s already working for them.
The Toyota RAV4 is being built here in Ontario, Canada and with a 80 cent “Buck” its cheaper by far, the plant in Woodstock, Ontario is only running one shift, even though it was destined to run more, ahh depression eh?
Ronnie,
You sure have a lot of venom for a guy who just asked some of the same questions TTAC asks everyday.
BTW: You do know it was Senator Lott who got Toyota and Nissan into Mississippi, Shelby is next door in Alabama.