Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) is an automobile manufacturing factory in Georgetown, Kentucky, United States. It is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America, itself a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan. The plant assembles the Toyota Camry, Toyota RAV4, and Lexus ES along with producing engines. History The Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan has been active in the North American market since 1957, made its manufacturing investment in North America in 1972 with the establishment of a company now known as Toyota Auto Body California, and established its first production line in the US in 1986 at NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), a joint-venture with General Motors. After those early ventures, Toyota was ready to establish wholly-owned manufacturing factories in North America. The company had planned to announce it was establishing a plant in Georgetown, Kentucky (then known as Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA) and another in Cambridge, Ontario as Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada in news conferences on December 11, 1986 in Kentucky and December 12 in Canada. Instead the news was leaked early by Sen. Mitch McConnell on December 8. The first vehicle rolled off the production line on May 26, 1988, a prototype 1989 model 4-cylinder Camry. In the beginning, the engines were manufactured at Toyota Kamigo plant in Toyota City, Japan and shipped to TMMK; however, an on-site engine plant was added from 1988 to 1992, increasing the American content to 75%. Employees improved the production process. TMMK began the production of the Lexus ES sedan beginning in October 2015, adding 50,000 vehicles annually and 750 jobs to the facility. Toyota invested $360 million to accommodate the additional work. "Lexus was founded in the United States, so it is only fitting that we are bringing the production of luxury sedans for our U.S. customers back to where the brand was born," said Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation. "It is also fitting that we chose Kentucky because it was Toyota's first stand-alone plant in America. So in a way, for manufacturing, Kentucky is Toyota's home. It also has some of the most-experienced Toyota team members in the world." Daniel Lowry, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Cabinet of Economic Development, gave credit to the high quality of Kentucky's workforce, saying Lexus wanted its best people involved in the first U.S. expansion of the brand's manufacturing. It presently builds the Camry sedan, Lexus ES sedan, and