Toyota May Review Plans for Prius at Stalled Mississippi Plant

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., preparing to sell a revamped Prius hybrid later this year, may review plans to build the car in Mississippi and possibly make another model in the state, the company’s U.S. sales chief said.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, in December halted construction of an assembly plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, amid plunging vehicle sales. The company is only completing the exterior for now, and hasn’t said when the factory may open.

“It’s conceivable that something else could go potentially in there,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, told reporters in Washington yesterday. “It was originally designed for Highlander, then switched to Prius. “That decision can still be moved around.”

All Prius hatchbacks sold in the U.S. are now imported from Japan. It’s still Toyota’s intent to make the car in Blue Springs when the factory eventually opens, spokesman Mike Michels said.

Installation of assembly equipment at Blue Springs is “on hold until we have a sense for when the market is going to improve,” Lentz said. When the factory was announced in 2007 the company said it would make Highlander sport-utility vehicles, before deciding in July 2008 to build the Prius there instead.

Toyota in January said it will pay debt-service costs for state and local borrowers in Mississippi after delaying the $1.3 billion plant project. The company also agreed to help suppliers make promised payments. Toyota’s first $10 million share of debt is due in April 2010.

Toyota May Review Plans for Prius at Stalled Mississippi Plant - Bloomberg.com

 

Toyota still plans to build Prius at Blue Springs site : DeSoto : Memphis Commercial Appeal

JACKSON -- Toyota Motor Co. has no plans to build anything other than the hybrid Prius at its plant under construction in Blue Springs, about 75 miles southeast of Memphis, a company spokesman said Thursday...

"The plan is still to make Priuses, and we don't see anything to change that. Jim Lentz was asked was it possible."



... Michels said the delay is still in place until the anemic economy gets better.