Toyota Reportedly Picks Canadian Location for Its Seventh Auto Plant in North America

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build another plant in Canada, its seventh in North America, to produce 100,000 to 150,000 subcompact cars a year by as early as 2008, a Japanese newspaper reported today.

Japan’s largest automaker plans to spend about 50 billion yen ($463 million) to build the plant near its existing Canadian facility in the province of Ontario, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.

Toyota had considered building the plant in the United States but selected Canada because of lower labor costs, it said.

By the time the plant begins operations, Toyota’s total manufacturing capacity in North America will have increased to about 2.5 million units a year, about 1 million more than in 2004, the paper said.

The company’s ratio of North American to total output will rise to almost 30% from 20% now, the report said.

Meanwhile, Toyota has started investigating suitable sites in the United States or Mexico for its eighth North American plant, which it plans to start building by 2010, the report said.