By Dan Shaw, Evansville Couirer & Press
Toyota's Princeton plant will not resume producing the Tundra pick-up truck in November, contrary to its plans announced last month.
Kelly Dillon, a company spokeswoman, said Toyota will concentrate its production of the Tundra in San Antonio immediately. Last month, the Japanese company had said the Tundra line would be moved to the Texas plant in early 2009.
Dillon said Toyota is still considering how to best bring about the restructuring of its North American operations, a plan the company announced in July. Toyota had then said it would suspend the production of the Tundra and the Sequoia sport utility vehicle in August.
Both lines were to be resumed in November, several months before the Tundra was to be permanently moved to San Antonio, where the large pick-up truck is already made.
Dillon said Princeton employees learned of the change in plans Tuesday. Instead of returning to making the Tundra, employees will get an early start at learning to make the Highlander SUV, which will begin rolling off Princeton assembly lines in fall 2009.
"This will allow us to begin preparations and equipment changes for the Highlander as soon as possible," Dillon said.
Toyota still plans to resume making the Sequoia in November, she said. The company has made plans to export the SUVs to the Middle East, she said.
Toyota has often said it will avoid laying off any of the 4,500 employees at the Princeton factory during the proposed changes. About 1,300 of them work on the Tundra and Sequoia in the company's west plant.
In recent weeks, Toyota has reminded Princeton employees that they can take temporary assignments at the company's factory in Georgetown, Ky., as well as at a Subaru plant in Lafayette, Ind., where the Camry is made. Mike Goss, a Toyota spokesman, said the company has heard some interest in those opportunities, while speculating that many workers may prove reluctant to travel so far away from home.
Toyota has adopted the production changes in response to a falling demand for its large vehicles. Last week, Toyota said its profits in the first quarter of its fiscal year had fallen 28 percent. The company predicted its profits for all of 2008 would decline for the first time in seven years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report