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With around US$257 of government funding, Toyota will spend $1.1 billion on upgrades to a pair of assembly plants in Ontario so they can make the next-generation RAV4 — including a hybrid version, and R&D conducted in the province. The work will be done by 2019, and will both keep 8,000 jobs in Canada and add 450 more (along with 1,000 co-op placements). Over 60 Canadian suppliers also depend on the plants.

The investment and upgrades include production of a hybrid version of the RAV4 and spending on research and development in Ontario.

The RAV4 has been assembled in Woodstock, Ontario, for ten years; to make it at one of the Cambridge plants as well required moving the Corolla, which is going to a joint venture with Mazda in Alabama. While the Corolla used to be one of Toyota's two best sellers, along with the Camry, the RAV4 has overtaken it; in Canada, the RAV4 is Toyota’s best seller. In the US, the RAV4 was the best selling non-pickup-truck vehicle, period, in 2017, with over 400,000 sold.

The Canadian plant changeover will be done in 2019; until it's finished, hybrid RAV4s will come from Japan, as they do now.