Toyota Alabama announced Thursday that its 2,000-member Huntsville plant has assembled its 10-millionth engine.
It’s a significant watermark for the manufacturing facility, which first broke ground in 2001, and assembles a third of all Toyota engines in North America.
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The milestone engine was an i-Force MAX 2.4-liter for the automaker’s all-new hybrid Tacoma.
Toyota Alabama currently supplies engines to seven Toyota vehicle plants in North America – for models such as the Corolla, Highlander, RAV4, Sequoia, Sienna, Tacoma and Tundra. It also powers the Corolla Cross, which is assembled at the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA plant in Huntsville.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone and look forward to seeing where the next 10 million engines will take us,” Jason Puckett, president of Toyota Alabama, said. “I feel a great sense of pride knowing team members are powering the heart of some of the most popular, reliable and safest vehicles on the road.”
The plant turns out about 777,000 engines a year.
“When the plant opened with only one production line more than 20 years ago, I was a part of the team that helped start engine production in Alabama,” Brandon French, senior manager of production, said. “Since starting on the production line, Toyota has challenged me to learn many different roles.
Earlier this year, Toyota announced a $282 million expansion project that will create more than 350 jobs and add new lines for drivetrain products.
In all, Toyota has invested more than $1.7 billion in the engine plant.
