The southern auto belt adds to it’s growing number of factories.
Alabama will be the site of a new assembly plant to be built and operated jointly by Toyota and Mazda. The factory will employ up to 4-thousand workers and produce about 300-thousand vehicles a year.
Toyota already has a large engine plant in Huntsville, and a network of suppliers.
Foreign auto companies have turned the south into the home of a new auto industry.
Gov. Snyder, at the electronics show in Las Vegas, says Michigan was a contender for the new plant.
But southern states have key advantages for the new factories: good infrastructure, business-friendly regulations, and anti-union politicians.