Toyota, Mazda Mum on $1.6B Plant Procurement

Local officials say sitework is set to start in spring at the 2,500-acre cotton field near Huntsville, Ala., where automakers Toyota and Mazda on Jan. 10 announced a $1.6-billion manufacturing plant to employ about 4,000 and produce 300,000 vehicles annually. The plant would start up in 2021, with construction set to take several years. A U.S.-based Toyota spokeswoman told ENR the companies have not yet chosen a designer or builder in the right-to-work state, and there is no procurement timeline. The site was chosen because of the quality of the local workforce and proximity to the supply base, she said. Also, Toyota is expanding a nearby engine plant. State and local incentives, including from the Tennessee Vallay Authority, to win the plant could be as much as $900 million.

Mary B. Powers has reported on engineering and construction issues in the global energy and environmental sectors for more than 30 years from Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Ala. She formerly wrote for the Platt's group of energy sector publications under McGraw Hill and S&P Global that included Inside Energy and Megawatt Daily, and was state editor for the Lexington, Ky., Herald Leader. Mary has a master’s degree in journalism from The American University.

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