Toyota to quit making Camrys in Lafayette

Toyota plans to pull its Camry production line from the Subaru factory in central Indiana after the contract between the companies ends in 2016.

The 3,600-worker factory near Lafayette has been building the Camry midsize car for Toyota since 2007. But Toyota has notified Subaru officials that it won't renew the current five-year contract, said Tom Easterday, executive vice president for Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc.

Easterday said he doesn't expect any layoffs at the factory because of Toyota's decision, although it could delay the plans Subaru announced in May to expand the factory and add 900 workers. The plan calls for the Lafayette plant to begin producing the Impreza small car by the end of 2016.

Easterday said the jobs created by the Impreza expansion will "more than offset" any Camry-related loss.

"There will be no loss of jobs at SIA as a result of this," Easterday said. "We also know there are future projects that Subaru has in mind for our plant that should add several hundred jobs in the future, possibly by 2018."

The Lafayette factory, which opened in 1989, also builds Subaru's Legacy and Outback cars and the Tribeca SUV.

Easterday told WLFI-TV that Toyota's decision shouldn't affect the scale of Subaru's planned $400 million expansion, though some warehouse construction might be delayed until 2017.

Toyota has a production plant near the southwestern Indiana city of Princeton where some 4,500 workers build SUVs and minivans.

Easterday said Toyota's decision came to end its deal with Subaru as a surprise.

"Even though we'd like to continue producing the Camry, this decision does open up the possibility of SIA's production of another Subaru (model)," Easterday said.