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Toyota, Mazda get an Alabama welcome for $1.6 billion plant

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Toyota and Mazda confirmed Wednesday they will build a $1.6 billion joint venture assembly plant in Alabama that will employ up to 4,000 workers, a boost for President Donald Trump who wants automakers to expand U.S. production. Toyota President Akio Toyoda and Mazda President and Chief Executive Officer Masamichi Kogai joined Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in Montgomery at an event to confirm the decision. "Welcome to sweet home Alabama," Ivey said to the two executives, after saying that the anticipated 4,000 workers at the plant to be built in Huntsville would earn an average of $50,000 a year. The plant will produce 300,000 vehicles a year and should open on a 2,500-acre former cotton field in 2021, about 14 miles from Toyota's engine plant in Huntsville. Toyota plans to build Corolla cars at the plant, while Mazda will build crossover SUVs. "Together, I am confident we will create yet another 'Built in America' success story," Toyoda said. Alabama will provide tax incentives. Officials said the state tax incentives were worth $370 million, but they did not disclose how much the local incentives were worth. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said the plant will "provide jobs for decades to come for Huntsville and Alabama. It vaults Alabama to the top as an industry leader in producing the next generation of cars that will power our nation." Among U.S. states, Alabama is already the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks. The state has more than 150 major auto suppliers and 57,000 automotive manufacturing jobs. Two decades ago, Alabama spent an estimated $250 million to woo Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz to put an auto plant in Tuscaloosa, sparking the birth of auto production in the state. In September, Daimler said it would invest $1 billion to expand its Alabama Mercedes-Benz plant to start building electric sport-utility vehicles there from about 2020. Alabama is also home to assembly plants operated by Honda and Hyundai. A Kia assembly plant operates near the Alabama border in Georgia. Mazda and Toyota said they still need approvals and authorization by antitrust agencies for the new joint venture. They announced a capital alliance in August and plans to jointly develop technology for electric vehicles. Trump tweeted in March he wanted "new plants to be built here for cars sold here." Many automakers have announced expansions of facilities or new jobs but no other new U.S. auto plants have been announced. U.S.

2019 Mazda3 First Drive Review | Defining the term 'fun to drive'

Fun to drive. The phrase gets blasted from seemingly every car commercial, magazine ad, and influencer account – overused that it has lost all meaning. So when Mazda, a small firm that actually does make cars that are fun to drive, talks about their most compelling trait it gets lost in the cacophony of ad spends. However, we're here to tell you that yes, while it's difficult to quantify, some cars are objectively more fun to drive than others, and the all-new 2019 Mazda3 is — and this is a very technical term — a freakin' blast. At Mazda's behest, we took a 2019 sedan up Angeles Crest Highway just outside of L.A. With plenty of yellow signs, tight sequences of banked curves and elevation changes, it's the platonic ideal of those serpentine mountain roads you see in car commercials. The instant the Mazda3 reaches the windy roads, it glides in like an otter diving into the sea. Lively and graceful, it dances along a ribbon of asphalt more naturally than any compact sedan we've driven since the advent of drive-by-wire. The steering is not only direct and true, but possesses an extraordinary ability to maintain trajectory. From the moment you turn in, you never need to make adjustments to the steering wheel until the front tires are straight again. The car goes exactly where you intend, always. That's not hyperbole, but an amazing feat of engineering. In nearly every other vehicle, even those that purport to be sports cars, unless you're incredibly familiar with the machine and know the road like the back of your hand, minor mid-corner corrections are an inevitability. With the 3, you get it right on the first try. Now imagine you're on strip of canyon pavement with lots of short switchbacks in varying radii coming up fast, one right after another. The 3 links them all together with pure ease, and soon you're developing a rhythm through the curves. While other cars charge, the Mazda flows. The car's poise is particularly evident as momentum shifts from one direction to another, what Mazda chassis engineer Dave Coleman termed "transience." In most cars passengers are tossed around the cabin like mannequins, but the 3 cuts out the turbulence, its body engineered to move in a smooth undulation. At the midpoint of the transition, there's even a moment of weightlessness before the car tucks into the next turn and the seat seems to scoop you up and carry you onward.

Mazda Kai concept hints at a more muscular, refined Mazda3

Mazda is packing some serious punch for the Tokyo Motor Show, unveiling a stylish hatchback it's calling the Kai Concept to go along with the earlier reveal of the show-stopping Vision Coupe. The compact five-door concept heralds a new generation of cars for the Japanese automaker, which is best known for making sporty, smallish and well-designed vehicles — such as the Mazda3, from which this concept derives its design direction. This version smooths over most of the Mazda3's sharp body creases in favor of smooth, undulating body panels that dramatically reflect light and reflect Mazda's KODO design language. It also gets more narrow, aggressive-looking headlights and a unique overhead profile, with two panes of glass that continue from the windshield and are intersected by a solid-color center, like a U-shaped moonroof. The Kai is powered by a next-generation Skyactiv-X combustion engine, which uses Mazda's proprietary compression ignition system to give the gas-powered engine the fuel efficiency, torque and initial acceleration response of a diesel powertrain. Which is encouraging, considering the Mazda3 already delivers impressive fuel economy. Inside, the concept hints at more refinement, with streamlined chrome accents popping from the black dash and interior panels. It all rests on Mazda's Skyactiv Vehicle Architecture that reflects human-centered design philosophy in everything from redesigned seats to maintain the spine's natural "S" curvature, to NVH tweaks to encourage a quieter, more comfortable ride. Mazda has said it plans to put this concept into production, but there's no word yet on when exactly that will be.Related Video: