MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people.

Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a joint news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021.

“This is indeed a great day in Alabama,” Ivey said. “Thank you for believing in the potential of our people in the great state of Alabama. ... Toyota and Mazda, thank you so much. Welcome to sweet home Alabama.”

To lure the plant, the state offered an incentive package of $370 million in tax abatements and investment rebates, Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said. That figure does not include a local incentive package still being finalized. The state will also provide workforce training.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motors, said the new facility is something of a homecoming since the company already has one plant in the state.

The new Huntsville plant will be just 14 miles from Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Alabama, which produces four-cylinder, V-6 and V-8 engines for several Toyota models.

The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South.

Alabama was tied with Tennessee as the fifth-largest producer of vehicles in the country last year, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.