Toyota announced Monday that it will invest more than $1.3 billion over the next three years to upgrade its massive assembly plant in Greensboro, Kentucky.
Although the investment has been in the works since before President Donald Trump was inaugurated, he lauded the company and took credit for facilitating the move in a statement released by Toyota.
“Toyota’s decision to invest $1.3 billion in their Kentucky plant is further evidence that manufacturers are now confident that the economic climate has greatly improved under my administration,” he said in a statement.
Toyota had previously declared its plans to invest $10 billion in its U.S. operations over the next five years several days before Trump’s took office. The new investment will not add any new jobs to the facility’s 8,200 employee count.
The plant, which is the company’s largest in the world and sprawls 7.5 million square feet, produces several of Toyota’s models, including the Camry and the Avalon. The investment is part of a plan dubbed the Toyota New Global Architecture that would overhaul the company’s vehicle assembly system.
Once the upgrades are complete, the plant will be able to more easily adjust to changing manufacturing demands, meaning the company will be prepared to react more swiftly to changing market conditions.
The plant is already home to such a shift in manufacturing needs, with Toyota previously hiring 700 new employees to help with the launch of the redesigned Camry. The new model, which Toyota unveiled earlier this year, came as a response to the Camry’s lagging sales. Although it’s still the best selling car in the U.S., the Camry’s market share has fallen as consumers have started to shift from buying sedans to crossover sport utility vehicles.
