Toyota Manufacturing Plant in Alabama produces 5 Million Engines

Toyota Alabama Motor Manufacturing, in Huntsville, had a celebration on February 25th 2017. The reason was that the 5 millionth engine rolled off from their assembly line on Friday. This is an amount of engines that could be stretched from Huntsville to Los Angeles.

“Five million, that’s incredible. You just don’t think in those terms,” says Theodore Bridgeforth, a group leader and original team member who helped bring that first engine forth back in 2003. “It was special, seeing the first engine go from months of planning and design to actually coming off the line. And while we now make a lot more product, the same care and quality goes into each engine – that has not changed.”

This is the only Toyota facility worldwide that has V8, than V6 and 4 cylinder lines under one roof. The 5 millionth engine, a V6, was the result of an investment of $230 million in 2014.
Each day the plant produces 3,000 engines. They produced 702,014 engines during the last year which was a record for this facility. During the past 15 years, this plant was expanded four times and offered more job openings. Toyota directly and indirectly employs 136,000 people on the U.S. market.

Toyota Alabama plant produces engines for six vehicles, Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia, Camry, RAV4, and Highlander. From Huntsville, the engines are shipped to three Toyota’s assembly plants in the U.S., including Indiana, Texas and Kentucky. An investment of $10 billion will be made over the next five years in the U.S. operations.

“On one hand it is hard to fathom we have built 5 million engines,” says David Fernandes, plant president. “However, when you take into account the dedication and craftsmanship of our team members, it isn’t so hard to believe. They have met every challenge and continue to build an incredible product in a safe and efficient way. ”

With these 5 million engines you can supply almost every vehicle that is registered Alabama.
The weight of 5 million engines is equal to the weight of three Empire State Buildings.

Celebrating this achievement Toyota donated $50.000 to the Huntsville Library Foundation, for the North Huntsville Library project.