In the face of rapidly dropping truck and SUV sales, Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to begin building its wildly popular Toyota Prius hybrid at a plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi.

Toyota has continued to produce the Prius in Japan because its hybrid powertrain suppliers are there and because the company has kept close guard on its lucrative hybrid technology.

The Prius, which uses an internal combustion engine in concert with electric motors powering the wheels, returns 45 mpg compared to the standard Highlander at 24 mpg.

Scheduled for a re-engineering in 2010, the Prius has become synonymous with the idea of "hybrid" for drivers seeking to beat the high price of gasoline and to drive a vehicle with fewer environmentally harmful emissions.

The redirection of the plant, originally scheduled to be a site for the assembly of the Highlander SUV, is one of three major moves Toyota plans in the U.S.

Production of the Tundra and Sequoia will be halted on August 8 and will not resume until November. Next spring, the company will consolidate its Tundra pickup production at its San Antonio, Texas facility.

Originally, the San Antonio plant, opened in 2006, was expected to produce inventory for 25,000 unit sales per month. The shift in consumer buying preferences to smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, however, has dropped sales to only 13,000 a month for 2008 to date.