Toyota will invest $US10 billion ($A14 billion) in the United States, company president Akio Toyoda says, days after US president-elect Donald Trump criticised its planned factory in Mexico.
Toyoda made the announcement during a news conference at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday as the Japanese carmaker unveiled its redesigned 2018 Camry model, Kyodo News agency reported.
"The Camry has been one of the reasons why we've invested $US22 billion in the United States over the last 60 years and why we will invest another $US10 billion here in just the next five years alone," Toyoda said.
The announcement came after Trump threatened last week to impose heavy taxes on the carmaker if it goes ahead with its plan to build a new plant in Mexico.
"Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for US NO WAY! Build plant in US or pay big border tax," Trump said on Twitter on Thursday.
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Toyota's new investments were not in response to Trump's criticism but were part of its business strategy, the carmaker's North America chief executive Jim Lentz reportedly said.
Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on Sunday announced plans to invest $US1 billion in its Jeep brand. The expansion could add more than 2,000 jobs by 2020 at factories in Michigan and Ohio, industrial heartland states won by Trump in the presidential race in November.
Ford cancelled plans to build a $US1.6 billion plant in Mexico and said instead it would invest $US700 million into a plant in Michigan.
