More information about a planned expansion at Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA) is coming out. Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski announced the capital investment will be $200 million at the plant. He made the comment during his State of the City address Monday night.
Roswarski says he expects the project to create a significant number of jobs in Lafayette.
“They haven’t released a lot of that information yet, but I can tell you when you invest that much money, whether it’s in the real estate or machinery, you know, people have to put the machinery in and people have to build the buildings.”
SIA’s parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, announced last month it would produce a new model at the plant, which already makes the Outback, Legacy and Tribeca. SIA also has a contract to build some Toyota Camry sedans.
Roswarski says expansion will have a ripple effect. He notes that in the automotive industry, any time you create a job, you create additional jobs, mostly from parts suppliers.
“There are other jobs besides that,” Roswarski says. “You need truck drivers to haul away more of the cars. You need more people that do other auxiliary jobs for those new models.”
The SIA facility is undergoing a $75 million build-out. The plant’s government air permit allows for about 310,000 vehicles to be produced each year. Fiscal Year 2012 production was nearly 253,000 units.
An SIA spokesperson would not comment on the $200 million investment figure. More details of the expansion and which model will be produced at SIA in 2016 is expected around the end of March.