Subaru plans 1,200 jobs as part of $140M expansion

Subaru of Indiana Automotive plans to spend $140.2 million to expand its plant in Lafayette and add as many as 1,200 workers before the end of 2017, the company announced Monday morning.

The expansion will help Subaru increase production by nearly 100,000 vehicles annually.

SIA already employs more than 3,800 Hoosiers and manufactures about 300,000 cars each year, it said.

The plant, which makes the Subaru Outback, Subaru Legacy and Toyota Camry, is Subaru’s only production facility outside Japan. Camry production is expected to end in the second half of 2016.

The company told state officials that the latest expansion will come on top of a $400 million expansion already under way. That project, announced in May 2013, includes a new paint shop and the larger engine-assembly and stamping sections to enable SIA to begin Subaru Impreza production by the end of 2016.

Subaru recently announced that it would also begin production of a new vehicle at the plant after 2017: a seven-seat sport-utility vehicle exclusive to the North American market. A spokewoman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. said the expansion announced Monday is unreleated to the new vehicle.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered SIA up to $7.65 million in tax credits and up to $250,000 in training grants that are conditional on the company's ability to meet job-creation plans.

The city of Lafayette and Tippecanoe County will consider additional incentives.

IEDC officials said the expansion is expected to spur growth at Subaru's materials suppliers, including 28 of them in Indiana.

Established in 1987, SIA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and is one of only three Subaru assembly plants worldwide.