Tag: Toyota

West Virginia Education Department Rebuilding Electronic Items

Thousands of unused items like computers, monitors, keyboards and mice are being donated to the West Virginia Education Department for use in schools across the state.

 

The state Education Department says the electronic devices were going into state surplus. But instead, they’re being rebuilt, refurbished and given to schools and libraries across the state for free.

 

It’s part of an initiative called SecondLaunchWV. The state says private organizations such as Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mountaineer Gas and the West Virginia Air National Guard have also recently donated equipment for the program.

 

The initiative is also providing equipment to the state’s 118 public libraries, according to a news release from the state Education Department.

 

The release says the program is 3-years-old and has placed more than 14,000 items in 47 counties – equaling more than $5 million worth of equipment.

Toyota Investing $374 Million at 5 Existing US Factories

Toyota Motor Corp. announced a $374 million investment Tuesday at five U.S. plants to support production of its first American-made hybrid powertrain.

The upgrades at Toyota’s factories in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia are part of a previously announced $10 billion in U.S. spending by the Japanese automaker. It “underscores Toyota’s confidence in the capability and global competitiveness of our North American manufacturing,” Jeff Moore, Toyota North America’s senior vice president of manufacturing, said in a statement.

Toyota said 2.5-liter engines made in Kentucky and transmissions produced in West Virginia will be used in North American-made hybrid vehicles, such as the Highlander SUV manufactured in Princeton, Indiana.

Toyota will create 50 jobs at its Huntsville, Alabama, plant, which will build engines for its cost-saving New Global Architecture production strategy to share common parts and components among different vehicles. None of the other upgrades announced Tuesday will result in immediate net job gains.

The investment includes $106 million at the Huntsville plant, a $121 million expansion of a 2.5-liter engine capacity at Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, and $115 million to add hybrid vehicle transmission production in Buffalo, West Virginia.

Toyota also is investing $17 million to increase production of 2.5-liter cylinder heads at its Bodine Aluminum facility in Troy, Missouri. A $14.5 million upgrade at a Bodine plant in Jackson, Tennessee, will accommodate production of hybrid transmission cases and housings and 2.5-liter engine blocks.

“This investment is part of our long-term commitment to build more vehicles and components in the markets in which we sell them,” said Toyota Motor North America CEO Jim Lentz.

2 Decades Pass Since Toyota Groundbreaking in W.Va.

Two decades have passed since ground was broken on Toyota West Virginia Motor Manufacturing’s engine and transmission plant in Putnam County.

On Sept. 18, 1996, Japanese and American officials planted 10 Japanese maple trees at a ceremony in Buffalo.

The plant opened in 1998 with about 300 employees. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the plant now employs about 1,100 workers.

A new $90 million production line opened in 2014, increasing the plant’s annual capacity from 500,000 transmissions to 700,000. The plant has expanded eight times since it opened.

The plant was one of the signature achievements of then-U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who was chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and has known Toyota’s founding family since the 1960s.

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