Toyota Truck Company Picks Wood County For New Assembly Plant

West Virginia's burgeoning automotive industry is getting bigger. Hino Motors, a Toyota truck affiliate company, announced June 25 that it will build a vehicle assembly plant in West Virginia. The company said it will invest $8.6 million to upgrade a now-vacant plant in Wood County and install manufacturing equipment. Hino said that when operations begin in November, the 194,000-square-foot plant will employ about 80 people. They will build 2,500 trucks annually.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Gov. Joe Manchin joined Hideichiro Chikahiro, president of Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A. Inc., took part in the announcement that Hino will assemble medium and heavy-duty trucks at the former Walker Systems plant off W.Va. 14.