TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that it held a groundbreaking ceremony in Yorktown, Michigan, U.S.A., on Friday (local time) to mark the expansion of Toyota Technical Center (TTC), a division of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA). Present at the ceremony were Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, TMC Executive Vice President Kazuo Okamoto, TTC President Yasuhiko Ichihashi and others.

To promote the localization of research and development aimed at strengthening Toyota’s product lineup for the North American market, TMC announced in April 2005 that it would expand TTC by establishing a campus in Yorktown in addition to TTC’s current campus in Ann Harbor, Michigan.

TTC-Yorktown, expected to be completed in mid-2008, is to feature an engineering design facility and a safety test facility, at an investment of 187 million dollars U.S., with a total of 400 new jobs to be added in scheduled phases by 2010.