Sam Hieb has already covered the local angle on the decision to put a new Toyota-Mazda assembly plant near Huntsville, Alabama, instead of a North Carolina mega-site near Liberty, despite an all-out incentive offer on a location that was finally near the automotive corridor along I-85.
The Alabama press provides a strategic reason for Toyota’s choice to further solidify that state as the automotive center of the Southeast: the Huntsville site is next to an engine plant and just two hours from another assembly facility.
The Alabama site sits near Toyota’s Huntsville engine plant, which announced a $106 million expansion last year. The Blue Springs Corolla plant is a two-hour drive away, and Toyota has suppliers and subsidiaries north in Tennessee.
There are no other auto assembly plants in North Carolina, and there is relatively little auto component production there compared with other Southeastern states — notably South Carolina and Tennessee.
