SAO PAULO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp onThursday announced a 1 billion reais ($243.29 million) expansionat a plant in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, joiningVolkswagen and General Motors in new investments in the region.
Toyota said the funding would allow the Sorocaba plant,which builds the Etios and Yaris sedan models, to produce a newvehicle model. It did not provide details on the new model.
Sao Paulo state has long been the heart of Brazil's autoindustry, which is in turn the largest in South America, but ithad recently been losing steam against aggressive incentivesoffered by other states to lure manufacturers.
Ford Motor Co announced plans in February to shut downand sell one its oldest Sao Paulo plants.
Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria has fought back to keepmanufacturing jobs in the state, devising a tax incentiveprogram to give automakers a 25% reduction in value added taxesas long as they invested at least 1 billion reais and created400 new jobs.
Toyota, however, said the Sorocaba expansion will createonly 300 jobs. The company, which has two other plants inBrazil, did not immediately respond to a question about whetherthis would still allow it to benefit from the tax incentives.
"During the last decade, which involved challenging timesfor the economy and the auto industry, Toyota remained faithfulin its commitment ... growing in a sustainable way," RafaelChang, who heads Toyota in Brazil, said in a statement.($1 = 4.1103 reais)(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun)