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At 20-year mark, Toyota WV plans $400M expansion

Charleston Gazette-Mail photo by Christian Tyler Randolph Osamu Nagata, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Toyota North America (left), Dr. Shuhei Toyoda, president of Toyota Boshoku Corporation (center), and former U.S. senator Jay Rockefeller laugh and applaud Wednesday after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin jokes that the only three words in Japanese he knows are, “Toyota, Toyota, Toyota,” during 20th anniversary celebrations at Toyota Motor Manufacturing WV Inc. in Buffalo.
Charleston Gazette-Mail photo by Christian Tyler Randolph
Osamu Nagata, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Toyota North America (left), Dr. Shuhei Toyoda, president of Toyota Boshoku Corporation (center), and former U.S. senator Jay Rockefeller laugh and applaud Wednesday after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin jokes that the only three words in Japanese he knows are, “Toyota, Toyota, Toyota,” during 20th anniversary celebrations at Toyota Motor Manufacturing WV Inc. in Buffalo.

BUFFALO, W.Va.What began as an empty field filled with dead trees just 20 years ago now is one of West Virginia’s largest manufacturing operations.

And Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia is set to grow even further, with a $400 million investment announced Wednesday at the plant’s 20th anniversary celebration.

The money will be spent to upgrade and modernize the engine and transmission plant, adding to the $1.4 billion Toyota already has poured into the facility since its inception.

“Over the next four years, we will be transforming this plant, bringing in new technology to set us up for a very bright and very busy future in the Mountain State,” Toyota West Virginia President Millie Marshall said in a speech at the celebration.

The biggest change to the plant will be converting the six-speed transmission lines to next-generation eight-speed transmission lines, which allows for better vehicle fuel economy. It will be the first plant in North America to bring in eight-speed transmission technology, Marshall said.

“It’s a testament to the team members we have,” she said. “We’re guaranteeing the future with this technology.”

Marshall and other event speakers, which included Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and former governor and U.S. senator Jay Rockefeller, touted the plant as establishing a strong relationship between the Japanese automotive manufacturer and the state of West Virginia. They also spoke highly of the economic opportunities and philanthropy Toyota has provided to the community since the plant was built.

 Rockefeller, who studied in Japan for three years in the 1950s, said Japanese plants coming to West Virginia, particularly Toyota, was something he always had his eye on.

“With the leadership at Toyota, I’m not sure at the beginning they thought West Virginia was the right place to go,” he said. “But we persisted for about 10 to 12 years, made lots of trips to Japan and brought people over here. Finally, they made the decision.”

Tomblin said after the event that the long-term relationship has opened up other economic opportunities from Japanese companies for people in the state. Japanese companies have expanded their West Virginia operations at least 12 times in the past six years, he added.

“Once that Toyota friendship developed, they felt comfortable in recommending us to other Japanese companies,” he said.

The 267-acre plant employs about 1,600 people and produces transmissions, 4-cylinder and V6 engines. It’s the only Toyota plant that makes engines and transmissions.

Over its 20-year lifespan, it has expanded eight times after an initial $300 million investment to build the plant in Buffalo. In 2015, 700,000 engines were made at the plant, which made up more than one-third of all Toyota engines built in North America that year.

Wednesday’s event also saw Toyota donate two vehicles to nonprofit organizations in the state. One to Hope Community Development Corp., which assists low-income individuals, and Golden Girl Group Home, which provides safe housing for girls in dangerous situations.

Reach Max Garland at [email protected], 304-348-4886 or follow @MaxGarlandTypes on Twitter.

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