Mazda Toyota's Alabama Plant Builds Its One-Millionth Vehicle Five Years After Opening
The 50/50 joint venture builds the Corolla Cross and CX-50 side by side, and it marked the milestone with $120,000 in workforce-training grants.
Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, the 50/50 joint venture between Mazda Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., has built its one-millionth vehicle in Huntsville, Alabama. The plant marked the milestone on October 28, a little more than five years after the first Corolla Cross rolled off its line in September 2021.
MTM didn't say which model was the millionth. Instead it celebrated with both crossovers it builds side by side, the Toyota Corolla Cross and the Mazda CX-50, and used the occasion to hand out $120,000 in grants to the groups that helped train its workforce. Huntsville is one of the newer pins on our map of Southern auto belt car plants.
Four nameplates, two brands
The $2.3 billion facility assembles the Corolla Cross and Corolla Cross Hybrid for Toyota and the CX-50 and CX-50 Hybrid for Mazda. MTM says the plant has created more than 4,500 jobs.
Both nameplates are selling well. Toyota says 2025 was the Corolla Cross's best-ever sales year, and Mazda sold 110,345 CX-50s in the U.S. last year, up 35.5 percent from 2024. For the 2027 model year, Toyota has dropped the entry-level Corolla Cross Hybrid S.
A million units in roughly 61 months works out to an average of about 197,000 vehicles a year. That number blends the slower launch period with full production, though. MTM hasn't disclosed its current annual output or how close the lines are to full utilization.
$120,000 for training partners
The grant money goes to four organizations MTM credits with supporting its training and workforce development since start-up: Calhoun Community College, Kids to Love, Morgan County Schools, and the Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association. The company hasn't said how the $120,000 is split among them.
Erik Skaggs, MTM's senior vice president, put the milestone down to the plant's team members. Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber, called the joint venture "an invaluable part of our community and regional economy."
What's next
MTM hasn't announced any new models for Huntsville. Elsewhere in the South, Japanese and Korean automakers keep adding capacity: Hyundai is putting $450 million into its Montgomery plant to build the next Tucson, and Toyota's San Antonio truck plant has topped 4,000 workers ahead of Tacoma production.
