Toyota Motor North America is investing more than $50 million to improve its vehicle testing site in Arizona, the company announced in a press release.
The Arizona Mobility Test Center at Toyota Arizona Proving Grounds — used by Toyota and outside companies — is expanding to include a new 5.5-mile track, new ride and handling surfaces, an off-road park for capability testing and additional areas for various vehicle tests. Most of these projects are already complete or will be completed by the end of 2025.
In the future, the company also plans to add an area for the development and testing of advanced driver assistance technology.
“Site updates make [the facility] more attractive as an ideal place for companies to test new vehicle capabilities, including by Toyota for our own North American-developed vehicle line-up,” Stefan Young, vice president of research and development at TMNA, said in a July 2 statement.
Located about 60 miles north of Phoenix, the test center covers approximately 11,650 acres of the Sonoran Desert. Toyota opened the facility in 1993 and tested more than 50 Toyota and Lexus vehicles there before it expanded the test center’s access to other automakers and suppliers in 2021.
The move at the time to expand access was “an opportunity to create new value with a capital-intensive asset, opening a revenue stream that can be used for continuous improvements on the facility,” said Randy Stephens, who was then a group vice president in product performance engineering, at the announcement of the expansion.
Beyond the test center’s value as a revenue stream, the investment in North American research and development for Japan-based Toyota reflects the company’s commitment to regionalized business practices, which it has described as a philosophy of “building where it sells.”
Investing in domestic research and development can also support localized manufacturing, a strategy Toyota and other automakers are pursuing to mitigate the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported vehicles and parts.
