The story
Having been active in the North American market since 1957, Toyota of Japan made its first manufacturing investment in North America in 1972 with the establishment of a company now known as Toyota Auto Body California, and established its first production line in the US in 1986 at NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), a joint-venture with General Motors.
Subsequently, and following numerous trips to Japan by Kentucky governor Martha Layne Collins in the 1980s, Toyota located a full-scale manufacturing plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1985. Toyota had planned its formal announcement of plants in Georgetown, Kentucky (then known as Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA) and Cambridge, Ontario as Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada on December 11, 1986, in Kentucky and on December 12 in Canada. Instead the news was leaked early by Sen. Mitch McConnell on December 8.
The first vehicle was assembled on May 26, 1988, a prototype 1989 model 4-cylinder Camry. In the beginning, the engines were manufactured at Toyota Kamigo plant in Toyota City, Japan and shipped to TMMK. An on-site engine plant was added from 1988 to 1992, increasing the American content to 75%. Employees were active in optimization of the production layouts and processes.
TMMK began the production of the Lexus ES sedan in October 2015, investing $360 million to accommodate the additional work, adding 50,000 vehicles annually and 750 jobs to the facility. Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation, said "Lexus was founded in the United States, so it is only fitting that we are bringing the production of luxury sedans for our U.S. customers back to where the brand was born," adding "It is also fitting that we chose Kentucky because it was Toyota's first stand-alone plant in America. So in a way, for manufacturing, Kentucky is Toyota's home. It also has some of the most-experienced Toyota team members in the world." Daniel Lowry, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Cabinet of Economic Development, gave credit to the high quality of Kentucky's workforce, saying Lexus wanted its best people involved in the first U.S. expansion of the brand's manufacturing.
TMMK currently assembles the Camry sedan, Lexus ES sedan, and RAV4 Hybrid for the 2023 Model Year. It previously produced the Avalon sedan, Sienna minivan, Venza crossover, and Camry Solara coupe and convertible. The factory also produces 4-cylinder and V6 engines and powertrain parts. The plant has three automobile assembly lines (two Toyota lines and one Lexus line) with an annual capacity of 550,000 vehicles, and an engine shop with an annual capacity of 600,000 engines. In addition to assembling vehicles and engines, many plastic parts used at TMMK are made at an on-site plastics shop.
In April 2017, Toyota announced it will spend $1.33 billion at the facility and added 700 new jobs in 2017 in preparation for the model year 2018 Camry, the first example assembled on 28 June 2017. TMMK is also the first US facility to use Toyota's new TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) technology underpinning the 2018 Camry.
In March 2026, Toyota announced an additional $800 million investment in its Georgetown facility, to prepare production for its second battery electric vehicle, and to increase production capacity of its Camry sedan, and RAV4 crossover SUV.
From Wikipedia’s article on Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4