Cambridge autoworkers get big boost from Toyota

Production of RAV4 will replace Corolla line lost to Mexican plant

Toyota says it will begin building its popular RAV4 sport utility vehicle at its Cambridge assembly plant in 2019, replacing production of the Corolla sedan.

The Cambridge north plant will receive significant new investment, in the “hundreds of millions of dollars,” a company spokesperson said.

The RAV4 would continue to be produced at Toyota’s Woodstock plant, with the Cambridge facility helping meet increased demand, the company said. The company also announced that it will be adding hybrid RAV4 production.

The announcement Tuesday helps allay fears about the plant’s future after Toyota said earlier this year that production of the Corolla sedan would move to Mexico.

Assembly jobs have been in decline in Canada as automakers invest more in emerging economies, such as China, and lower labour cost jurisdictions, such as Mexico and the southern U.S.

The announcement did not include any new jobs at Toyota, which currently employs about 8,000 people at its three assembly plants in southern Ontario.

But the new platform “will propel us to the next generation of automotive manufacturing and provide the basis for our longstanding commitment to employment stability,” Brian Krinock, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, said in a statement.

The move fulfills Toyota’s promise to replace the Corolla with a higher value-added vehicle, part of its strategy of moving smaller, less profitable vehicles to lower cost jurisdictions.

“Producing additional RAV4s, a more upscale, more complex, higher content vehicle, fits well with TMMC’s well-earned reputation for quality,” said Jim Lentz, chief executive officer for Toyota Motor North America, in a news release.

The move creates a North American hub for SUV production in southern Ontario, where Toyota also makes the Lexus RX.

“With a new platform and the latest technology, TMMC will have the flexibility to respond to the evolving needs of the automotive marketplace,” Krinock said in a statement. The news came on the same day the president of General Motors Canada called on government and business to build a new auto industry.

With the federal government prepared to pour billions into new roads and other infrastructure, now is the time to ensure it includes the kind of technology that enables self-driving cars and other innovations, GM’s Steve Carlisle said.

“Let’s say you want to put in an autonomous corridor (for self-driving cars) between Toronto and Waterloo. How do you enable that? Do we put sensors in the road so the cars know where the other cars are?”

Canada has a head start on other nations with its top-ranked engineering schools like the University of Waterloo and telecommunications giants like BlackBerry, Carlisle said after a speech to the Canadian Club of Toronto. But other countries are also forging ahead, he warned.

Carlisle called on industry stakeholders to form a consortium with government and academia to kick start big collaborative projects like the self-driving test facility at the University of Michigan.

GM has been reducing its assembly plant footprint in Canada. Carlisle continued to say no decision about replacing the Camaro in Oshawa would be made until after GM concludes negotiations with its unionized workforce in 2016.

The Camaro will cease production in Oshawa at the end of this year, at a cost of 1,000 jobs, after GM announced the new model would be built at a plant in Lansing, Mich.