Toyota’s Huntsville plant in Alabama has added output of a four-cylinder engine yesterday. This factory has a total output exceeding half a million units a year, and about 216,000 of that will be dedicated to the four-banger, which will be used to power the 2012 Camry, Highlander, RAV4 and Venza cross/utility vehicles and Sienna minivan.
“Engines now produced in Huntsville will go into eight Toyota models assembled in North America, furthering our commitment to localizing production,” said Atsushi Niimi, Toyota executive vice president.
The four-cylider engine will not be supplying units for the Blue Springs, Mississippi, facility, which opens this fall to build the Corolla compact sedan.
Huntsville will be the first Toyota facility globally to make four-cyinders, V6s and V8s at the same time. V8 production started in 2003 with the V6 engines added in 2005.