In the continuing saga of automakers revising their product line as fuel-efficient cars and hybrids loom in popularity over gas-guzzling trucks, Toyota admits its own chinks with a plan to revamp what it builds where.
The big news: it will start building the Prius in the U.S. in late 2010 at its new plant under construction in Blue Springs, Mississippi. Currently all Prius production is in Japan.
While Toyota boasts a comprehensive hybrid vehicle lineup, currently only the Camry hybrid is built in North America, in Kentucky. A new Prius is expected to be unveiled at the 2009 North American International Auto Show and continue to fuel a seemingly insatiable demand for the hybrid that Toyota has struggled to build enough of. As a result, sales were down 26 percent in June, despite public clamor for the car that has come to epitomize hybrids.
While there has been talk for some time about building the Prius in North America, most speculation has centered on Toyota’s joint venture plant with General Motors in California, known as the New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated in Fremont.
