Employees at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama in Huntsville work in the shipping department in this 2006 photo. (Bloomberg News/Gary Tramontina)
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The Toyota engine plant in Huntsville has added four-cylinder engines to its lineup, and it will mark the debut of this latest product at a ceremony Thursday morning.
With the launch of the four-cylinder line, the plant is supplying engines for eight different Toyota vehicles, said Jim Bolte, the plant's president.
Four-cylinder engines built at the north Huntsville plant, called Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, will be installed in the 2012 Camry, Highlander, RAV4, Sienna and Venza vehicles. The plant already produces V-6 and V-8 engines for Tacoma and Tundra pickup trucks and Sequoia sport utility vehicles.
The Huntsville facility is also the only plant building this combination of products - four-cylinder, V-6 and V-8 engines - for Toyota, he said.
When the decision was made to build four-cylinder engines in Huntsville, TMMA was competing with Toyota plants in China, Australia and Japan, Bolte said. "A lot of that has to do with the good results we've had so far with the V-6 and V-8 engines. We're real excited about the four-cylinder ceremony," he said.
Scheduled to speak at the event are Gov. Robert Bentley; U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile; U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville; Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and Madison County Commission Chairman Mike Gillespie. Also taking part in the program are Atsushi Niimi, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Corp.; Shigeki Tersahi, president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America; Bolte; and Kelly Keeney, an employee at the plant.
The two local nonprofit organizations that will receive gifts of $50,000 will be announced at the ceremony. At a dinner program Wednesday night to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the plant's groundbreaking, TMMA will announce the recipients of 10 gifts of $10,000 and two Toyota vehicles to local nonprofits.
"We've hired at least 240 people" for the four-cylinder production, Bolte said. The plant, which started production in 2003, now has 978 employees.
No new construction was needed for the line, but the new investment at the plant reached $147 million, bringing the total investment there to $637 million.
The plant's annual four-cylinder capacity will be about 216,000 engines, Bolte said, and the plant will have the capacity to build more than 500,000 engines of all kinds a year.
The official four-cylinder production startup date was Sept. 12, Bolte said.
The plant was originally scheduled to start building those engines on July 5, but there were delays because of parts shortages resulting from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The delays, Bolte said, "gave us time for additional training."
Bolte praised TMMA employees for their "great work ethic and flexibility" over the years. Earlier this year, nonproduction days were scheduled at the plant after the Japan earthquake, and employees spent 24 of those days putting in about 26,000 volunteer hours on projects in nine Alabama counties to help victims of the April 27 tornadoes.