Tokyo ― TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that Toyota Technical Center (TTC), a division of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), has opened a campus in York Township, Michigan, U.S.A. The new campus will handle TTC's product planning and engineering design operations, as well as serve as TMC's first collision-safety testing facility outside Japan.
At a Thursday, October 9 ceremony to officially open the campus, attendees included Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, TMC Senior Managing Director Yasuhiko Ichihashi and TTC President Shigeki Terashi.
TTC, which is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and which has served as TMC's North American vehicle research and development base since 1977, has invested 187 million U.S. dollars in the York Township campus. The campus, for which plans were announced in April 2005, will create a total of 400 additional jobs at TTC by the end of 2010, 300 of which have already been filled.
TTC's Ann Arbor campus will continue to carry out evaluation activities, powertrain design and development, and research into materials and cutting-edge technologies.
With Japan as the center, TMC has established research and development bases in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia to carry out vehicle and parts design, planning and evaluation. TMC intends to continue striving to develop and offer products that suit regional conditions, and to meet the needs of customers all over the world.
