Toyota Motor Corp., after shelving plans to build Prius hatchbacks at a factory in Mississippi, is considering making the hybrid at a California plant shared with General Motors Corp., two sources said.
Toyota expects strong demand in the U.S., where the new model went on sale this month, and is raising output in Japan. Given the time and cost of finishing the half-built Mississippi facility, it may be easier to make the car at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., known as NUMMI, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions aren't public.
"Toyota put Mississippi in mothballs and as they look around at capacity already in place, NUMMI might make sense," said Jim Womack, chairman and founder of Lean Enterprise Institute in Brookline, Mass. "NUMMI builds Corollas, and now that Prius comes off the same underbody pan, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to build it on the same line."