Thirty years after the first shovel of dirt signaled change was coming, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana has left an immeasurable impact – employing thousands, boosting regional organizations with volunteerism and financial gifts, and building and shipping more than eight million high-quality vehicles across North America.
“It’s fair to say that Toyota didn’t just add jobs. They really changed who we are as a region,” says Lloyd Winnecke, CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. Data from E-REP proves Winnecke’s point: In the early 2000s, one in nine local manufacturing jobs was tied to the automotive industry. Today, following a wave of expansions at Toyota Indiana and suppliers such as Vuteq and Toyota Boshoku, the figure is one in five.
The 4.5 million-square-foot factory is divided among the original facility (now known as West Plant) and East Plant, which was added in 2003. It has long been a site of innovation — as current Toyota Indiana President Jason Puckett calls it, a “greenfield,” literally and figuratively. The facility sprouted from Gibson County farmland, and after its 1998 opening, it birthed two models that remain prominent in Toyota’s portfolio: the Tundra, a full-size pickup, and the Sequoia, an SUV derived from the Tundra…