Mazda and Toyota selected Huntsville, Ala., as the site of their new joint-venture manufacturing plant. The facility will have the capacity to build 300,000 vehicles annually, with production split evenly between two lines for each company to produce Mazda’s crossover model that will be newly introduced to the North American market and the Toyota Corolla.

The $1.6 billion investment – made with equal funding contributions – is expected to create up to 4,000 new jobs. Production is expected to begin by 2021 at the Huntsville plant, which is located approximately 14 miles from Toyota’s Alabama plant.