I’m SHOCKED Toyota is going to do THIS with the all-new 2028 Corolla.
Toyota is up 8% here in the United States year to date. And if you look at the month of October that we just finished, they’re up almost 12% including Lexus. We have some news coming out today that’s further going to accelerate in theory their sales here in the United States. I have some very, very exciting news to share with you guys today. If you missed a couple days ago where I updated you on Toyota’s $10 billion investment in the United States over the next five years, at the time I’m like, well, I have a gajillion different ideas on how they can use that money. All right. And then what we have now is a tenth of that money, 10% of that money already being committed to US manufacturing in the tune and focus of hybrid production. This Toyota is just so so smart with their decisions. They know what the market wants. They know what the market is demanding. They’re giving that product to the consumer regardless of what the government may or may not say about what kind of cars they should be building. Toyota, as we go back to day supply, I always have this up. They are down here with Lexus. They’re operating in a different game compared to the rest of the industry. Their cars, not all of them. As we look at the Camry right here, or so that’s a Lexus ES, but if we look at the Camry, there it is. This car is being discounted heavily. Heavily. All right. And it is one of the best cars on the market and you can get them for less than MSRP. Even though this car is fully hybrid, it’s still getting discounted. This is kind of the market where the market’s cooling rapidly. But even though Toyota is has has a really low day supply overall, it doesn’t mean you can’t get discounts on some of their more popular products. Tacoma, 4Erunner, the Camry, the Corolla, all those products I just mentioned, you should be able to get under MSRP. Okay, which is great news. If you’re in the market for a new Toyota RAV 4, good luck. Highlander, well, is that vehicle still around? because the Grand Highlander is eating its lunch in terms of sales. Grand Highlander, no way you’re getting a discount or very small chance. Sienna, forget about it. Let’s get into the big the big news today. Toyota creating 252 new manufacturing jobs. It’s not that much considering they’re dumping a billion dollars roughly into building more hybrids. But guess what? Check out this bullet point. Corolla hybrids are going to be built in Mississippi. Previously, they’re all coming over from Japan. This is critical due to well, I can’t recommend the Corolla right now because if you look at the Toyota Corolla, gosh, I’m all over the place with this. In my area, there are 1500 normal Corollas with the 2 L, but the CVT is so d-tuned and so neutered in there, you have to floor the vehicle to get anywhere. Now, it’s not slow, but 90% of the pedal is a dead zone. So, you have to constant like it’s almost like driving a manual without any of the satisfaction and and response of a manual because you have to work the pedal so much to get the Corolla non-hybrid to move. So, I can’t recommend the Corolla CVT. And so if I try to whittle down the the hybrid here, there’s only 29 hybrids, which is the only way to buy it. Now, you might be saying, Kirk, it’s three grand more. Like, that’s a lot of You’re right. That is a ton of gas money. But I guarantee this will be more reliable over time than the standard CVT model. You know, even though it’s a Toyota CVT, it doesn’t drive that well. That um you know, real first gear. It’s It’s not good. Check out my review on it. Um I just reviewed it recently in the Apex. I also reviewed in the LE non-hybrid. It’s not a good driving experience in the Corolla non-hybrid. The Corolla hybrid though, look at the demand. There’s only like third what what did I say? There’s only just a few 29 hybrids of the Corolla LE and they’re worth it MSRP. The problem is these are 24K. They all come from Japan. So, they’re hit with a tariff. They can’t It’s hard for them to like Toyota doesn’t want to send any of these Corolla hybrids over because it’s costing them. The Camry are all built here and you can get a Camry for just a few thousand dollar more and it is a much better car than the Corolla Hybrid. Corolla Hybrid’s fine. The Camry is elite. We get an announcement of Toyota building hybrid Corollas in Mississippi. Again, previously they’re all coming from Japan. So, we have more jobs and investments in Toyota’s West Virginia plant. They make a lot of power trains there. Kentucky, which is their main assembly plant where they build Camry, they build the Rav 4 hybrid. They’ll be buil the ES is leaving production there in just a few days essentially. And then you also have um the the new Highlander EV going to build be built there, assuming with a Lexus TZ variant as well as a Subaru variant. Don’t know how well a three row EV is going to work out here in the United States, even if it has a Toyota badge on it. Uh, look, their BZ doesn’t sell that great. All right. Anyways, Missouri and Tennessee plants are also getting upgraded. Kevin Vocal, senior vice president for manufacturing operations for Toyota here in North America. Con customers are embracing Toyota’s hybrid vehicles, and our US manufacturing teams are gearing up to meet that growing demand. Toyota’s philosophy is to build where we sell and by adding more American jobs and investing across our US footprint, we continue to stay true to that philosophy. So, West Virginia is getting $453 million. So, half of the investment is going to West Virginia, creating 80 jobs. This is in Buffalo, West Virginia. And this will increase assembly of four cylinder hybrid compatible engines, sixth generation hybrid transaxxles. We’ll come back to that. And rear motor sters. The big thing here is sixth generation hybrid transaxxles. Well, okay. Currently, the RAV 4 that is being built soon, the new sixth gen RAV 4 has a fifth generation hybrid. The Camry has a fifth generation hybrid. The only sixth generation that we see is in potentially the plug-in hybrid of the um the RAV 4. They call that a sixth generation plug-in hybrid. I’d like to get more clarification on what sixth generation means here. Is this for plug-in hybrids or is this for a new future generation hybrid transaxle? I’m going to say that it’s probably for a new uh sixth generation hybrid transaxle. Okay. Which which includes the power split device, includes the electric motor that the gasoline engine plugs into uh to form your bulletproof Toyota hybrid setup. All right. The expansion will begin uh production. The expansion, which will begin production in 2027, includes new shift patterns for greater efficiency. And Toyota West Virginia assembles more than a million engines, transmissions, and hybrid transaxxles annually and represents a $3.3 billion investment total. Do I know what a sixth generation Toyota hybrid is? I’ve talked about the transaxle, but the like the sixth generation hybrid could very well be what’s coming on um the new 1 and a half L and 2 L hybrid or four-cylinder engine hybrids. Okay. They have the ability for the 1 and a half liter hybrid sixth gen um to put that into the Corolla. Okay. Um they’ve showed this uh earlier this year. It was actually a year and a half ago um at the Mobility Workshop with Subaru and Mazda. Toyota showed off a a 1 and a half L 4-cylinder hybrid. The batteries are going to be a little bit bigger in these new hybrids, which is fine because Toyota has a battery plant in North Carolina to supply these batteries. So, it’s no big deal. They can put bit bigger batteries in their hybrids, but they’re having a bigger battery there for a larger buffer. And I think this is genius because if you look at the the Sienna, the Sienna has a huge hybrid battery compared to something like a RAV 4 or a Camry, almost twice the size. And as a result, even though on paper it has the same hybrid setup as, let’s say, the the previous generation Camry or or RAV 4, it gets crazy good fuel economy considering the size and the weight of the vehicle. All right. And I think largely it’s due to its oversized battery buffer that it can regen a lot more and also be used for more um electric propulsion to help out that 2 L 2 and 1/2 L. This is very exciting. Very very exciting. We could see a jump of maybe 10% efficiency versus current fourth and fifth gen hybrids. Um, so let’s say, you know, the Camry right now has uh 45 miles per gallon, which it can get a lot better. You would be able to see 50 m per gallon on it. All right. Doesn’t seem like much, but not only would you have better fuel economy, but you would have better acceleration, too, because of the extra electric propulsion. That’s just my theory. Toyota has slides to confirm this, and that’s what I think the sixth generation hybrid is. They haven’t said it’s sixth generation, but I don’t know what else would be. All right, let’s move on to Kentucky. Over 200 million uh million dollar and 82 jobs there. This is the largest plant globally in Georgetown. Um and will add 82 jobs and install an all new machining line for four-cylinder hybrid compatible engines, lining off in 2027. The powertrain facility can assemble up to 700,000 units annually. Toyota Kentucky employs nearly 10,000 people and represents an investment exceeding 11 billion. At the Mississippi plant will have $125 million investment. This is at Toyota Blue Springs, Mississippi. I’ve driven by this plant when I moved back down to Florida and that was just by chance that I drove by it. It was pretty cool. This will add the hybrid electric Corolla making the first electrified Corolla assembled in the US. The plant employs 2400 and represents over a billion dollar investment. Could they start building the hybrid electric Corolla there now? It’s possible. It doesn’t make sense though because nowhere in America do they build the 1.8 L hybrid setup or the 1.8 L engines that the Corolla Hybrid uses. They would have to upgrade the Corolla to the 2 L hybrid that the Prius uses. I don’t think they’re going to do that. I think they’re going to skip that 2 liter hybrid that the Prius uses and go straight for the new sixth gen 1 and a half liter hybrid that I talked about earlier. So, when could we see hybrids come out of the Mississippi plant where if I if I were to bet I would say it’s when the next generation Corolla comes down the hatch? That won’t be till 2027 2028. You might be saying, Kirk, the Corolla is old. It should be like being replaced now. But yes, but look at Toyota’s commitment here. I may I covered this a couple days ago. Toyota’s exceeding uh extending model life cycles to 9 years on average. All right, that could be happening with this generation Corolla. Don’t expect this hybrid to come soon for the Corolla built in the United States. You’re going to have to wait probably until 2027 is a 2028 model year. That’s just what my gut’s telling me. Let’s move on to Toyota Tennessee. 71 million jobs. Sorry, $71 million, 33 jobs. This is at the casting plant in Jackson. And this is for increased production of hybrid transaxal cases and housings and engine blocks for hybrid vehicles. The invest investment includes three allnew production lines and will increase production capacity by nearly 500,000 units annually. Production on the new line will start in 2027 and 2028 and there’s about a $500 million investment there. The hybrid game will continue to grow and expand for Toyota. Obviously, the Corolla Corolla sells about 200,000 units annually. Let me pull up um my sales sheet here. It’s somewhere. Here it is. If we look at Corolla Hybrid currently, I mean, it’s down on the year. Like I said, it’s up on the month, but you know, tariffs play a role in in them wanting to bring this vehicle over. But there could be a world in just a few years from now where the Corolla in the new generation is hybrid only. Look, they’re increasing 500,000 units of hybrids. That’s how I see it. It could be more, but 500,000 units of hybrids they say in 2027, 2028. Where are all these extra hybrids going to go? The Camry is already fully hybrid. The Rav 4 is already fully hybrid. Those are their two biggest volume players. All right. What else? Well, they need more Grand Highlander hybrid. Um, definitely there there’s not enough Grand Highlander hybrids out there to satiate the market demand. They there’s not enough Sienna hybrids out there to satiate market demand. All right. If Corolla goes full hybrid, that’s a lot of units right there. So, if we look at total Corolla so far this year is 201,000 units, but that’s after the third quarter or or October. So, uh third quarter plus a month, they’re going to get to about 250,000 Corollas sold in 2025. 250,000. So, half of that 500,000 hybrid volume could be Corolla right there. Also, they need far more Grand Highlander hybrids as you guys know. anything else that could be getting sort of hybrid expansion, you got you got to look at the Lexus lineup, too. Then um the Lexus lineup consists of NX, RX hybrids, TX hybrids. So I would I would expect that sort of expansion to go for more Lexus outside of the Corolla and Grand Highlander. Toyota Missou, Missouri, 57 million and 57 jobs. All right, they couldn’t trick me on that one. Toyota casting plant in Troy will add 57 jobs and new cylinder head production line for hybrid vehicles. The new line, which will start production in 2027, will increase plant capacity by more than 200,000 cylinder heads annually and bring the total investment to 629 million. So, building more cylinder heads, that’s great. Toyota is absolutely on a roll. They understand the market. They understand that I love hybrids. And because I love hybrids, everyone else like no, they understands that the majority of the the market demand right now is going for hybrids. There’s no plugin that you have to worry about unless you get a plug-in hybrid. Not talking about that. Okay. But the these investments could assist plug-in hybrids obviously as well because Toyota just puts a bigger battery and charging port, you know, a a little bit more DC to AC conversion anyways, but they use the same transaxxles. the plug-in hybrids as the hybrids, for example. So, anyways, this is very exciting for Toyota. They’re going to keep expanding their hybrids and just continue to make the competition very, very uncomfortable. No one’s going to be able to produce as many hybrids as Toyota. The Koreans are going to try their hardest, but they’re they’re not going to be close. Um, and that’s what where the majority of the demand right now is, I would say, outside of ice. Traditional ICE is still very strong, but I think Toyota has built their reputation. so well with their hybrid technology and there’s no additional worries you there’s no range anxiety in fact it increases your range a hybrid there is uh less maintenance you don’t have to change your brakes as much there’s no belts or pulleys that you have to worry about no water pumps that you have to the AC like all of it is more simplified in a hybrid because it’s all electric driven instead of belt driven like a traditional car so Toyota they got it figured out going to keep dumping billions into hybrids here in the United States production. The biggest takeaway for me is that this almost guarantees that the new Corolla coming is going to be hybrid only with an allnew hybrid um sixth generation system. That gets me super super pumped. Um and it fixes the biggest issue I have with the Corolla is that the 2 L CVT is an absolute dog to drive. I’ll see you guys in the comments. Have a great day. Stay tuned for more Toyota updates here on the channel. I got to get my Crown review out sometime soon, so stay tuned for that. Um, if you enjoy Toyota Crown. All right, have a great day. Peace.
#toyota #corolla #hybrid #rav4 #camry
Toyota is investing BILLIONS into America for expanded hybrid production. Here’s what that means for the next-gen 2028 Corolla made in Mississippi.
Toyota’s U.S. manufacturing presence is expanding again to meet growing demand for hybrid vehicles. As a part of Toyota’s recent commitment to invest up to $10 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, the company announces a $912 million investment and 252 new jobs across five manufacturing plants to increase hybrid capacity and bring hybrid-electric Corollas to its production lineup.
This investment in Toyota’s plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri further builds on the company’s ongoing commitment to reinvesting profits in its U.S. operations.
“Customers are embracing Toyota’s hybrid vehicles, and our U.S. manufacturing teams are gearing up to meet that growing demand,” said Kevin Voelkel, senior vice president, manufacturing operations. “Toyota’s philosophy is to build where we sell, and by adding more American jobs and investing across our U.S. footprint, we continue to stay true to that philosophy.”
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