Photo of assembly line at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in West Virginia courtesy of Toyota.

Photo of assembly line at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in West Virginia courtesy of Toyota.

Toyota will invest $373.8 million in five assembly plants to support production of its first American-made hybrid powertrain that will make its debut in the Highlander Hybrid, the automaker announced.

The investment will also go toward implementing Toyota's New Global Architecture platform at its Alabama plant. Work will begin this year with a target of being operational by 2020.

The investments will include adding new production of hybrid transaxles (hybrid vehicle transmissions) at the Buffalo, W. Va. facility; expanding 2.5-liter engine capacity at the Georgetown, Ky., plant; increasing production of 2.5-liter cylinder heads at Bodine Aluminum's Troy, Mo., plant; and modifying the Bodine Jackson, Tenn., plant to accommodate production of the hybrid transaxle cases and housings and 2.5-liter engine blocks.

The Huntsville, Ala., plant will undergo a comprehensive upgrade to enable it to build engines that complement TNGA.

The investment will be distributed with $120.9 million in Kentucky, $14.5 million to Tennessee, $115.3 million in West Virginia, $106 million in Alabama, and $17 million in Missouri.

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