Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build Lexus ES 350 sedans in Kentucky, the first U.S. production for its luxury brand, as CEO Akio Toyoda pushes to localize output in the automaker's biggest markets.
Toyoda and Jim Lentz, Toyota's North American chief, said Friday in New York that production of the ES, the top-selling Lexus model in the United States, will begin at its Georgetown, Kentucky, complex in 2015.
Toyota is investing $360 million (¥35.8 billion) to expand Georgetown's production capacity by 50,000 units to more than 550,000 vehicles a year.