Subaru, the automobile manufacturing division of Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), is planning to expand the capacity at its Lafayette plant in central Indiana, US, by about 30% to accommodate the production of the Impreza compact car by 2016.
Aimed at supplying four- and five-door variants of the Impreza for North America, the expansion would increase capacity of the Indiana plant by about 100,000 units per year.
Automotive News cited a report from Japan's Nikkei business daily as saying that Subaru would invest about $230m in the Indiana plant expansion project.
Additionally, the expansion would allow the carmaker to increase its vehicle supply to dealerships in the US, which is claimed to be its biggest market accounting for 50% of the brand's sales globally.
Upon the completion of expansion project, Subaru would build Impreza on the facility's second assembly line, while producing the Legacy sedan, Outback and Tribeca crossovers, on one line.
Subaru also manufactures Camry sedans under a contract with Toyota at its Indiana manufacturing plant, which is currently undergoing $75m expansion to increase production of Legacy and Outback models.
