Japanese automakers Toyota Motor and Mazda Motor plan to jointly invest $1.6 billion in the construction of a plant in Huntsville, Alabama, Interfax reports citing The Wall Street Journal.

The decision to build a joint venture was announced in August, but the location of the plant was not specified. 

It is expected that the opening of the plant, scheduled for 2021, will create 4 thousand new jobs. The company will produce about 300 thousand cars a year, mainly Toyota Corolla and Mazda crossovers.

It is noted that Alabama has three other major automobile manufacturing plants owned by German Daimler, Japanese Honda and South Korean Hyundai. In September, Daimler announced plans to invest an additional $1 billion in capacity expansion at its company in this state. 

In addition, Huntsville has the world's largest Toyota engine plant. In 2016, it produced over 702 thousand engines.

Shares of Mazda on Wednesday went up by 0.7%, papers of Toyota increased in price by 2.2%.