In a joint press conference Monday, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and Subaru announced that the Subaru of Indiana plant in Lafayette will be expanding production capacity by 100,000 vehicles through a $140 million dollar investment. The plant in west central Indiana plant is one of three worldwide plants for Subaru. The increased production will help the plant gain 1,204 additional jobs by 2017. Currently there are 3,800 workers producing about 300,000 vehicles per year in Indiana.
This latest announcement comes only days after Subaru CEO, Yasuyuki Yoshinaga said a new seven seat SUV will begin production at the plant after 2017. The SUV will be exclusively sold in the North American market, according to Yoshinaga. Subaru is already struggling to meet record demand in the U.S. market. The very popular Subaru Outback and Subaru Legacy are currently being built at the Lafayette facility.
The plant also currently produces the Toyota Camry through a joint agreement with Toyota. It has built Camry's at the plant since 2007. But Fuji Heavy Industries, which owns Subaru, had said previously that they would eliminate Camry production at the plant. Toyota has confirmed that all Camry output will be shifted to it's Georgetown, Kentucky plant by the fall of 2016. With the exit of Camry, an additional 100,000 vehicle capacity will free up on top of the additional 100,000 announced yesterday.
Subaru has sold 375,632 vehicles this year through the end of August. That is a 13% increase over the previous period in 2014. Subaru is on pace to sell 563,000 for the year, compared to 513,693 last year.
