Toyota will invest $30 million to increase production of its Highlander mid-size SUV at its Princeton, Indiana, Toyota Motors manufacturing plant, with plans to add 200 employees to its workforce.

“This capacity increase is to meet growing demand for the Highlander and is a part of our strategy to build vehicles where we sell them,” said TMMI President Norm Bafunno. “We appreciate our loyal customers who value the quality products our dedicated team members build in Princeton, and we’re excited to build even more Highlanders.”

Toyota’s Indiana plant builds a gas version of the popular Highlander and will begin producing the hybrid version before year-end. The new production volume added will be the gas model version. Toyota officials said soon Highlanders born in Indiana will find new homes with drivers in Russia and Australia, as TMMI is set to begin exporting to those countries later this year.

The automaker plans to increase production volume by 15,000 units. This expansion raises total employment at the plant to approximately 4,700 workers and total plant investment to more than $4.2 billion. In addition to its Highlander model, the plant manufacturers the auto company’s Sequoia full-size SUV and Sienna minivan. Current production capacity is 300,000 vehicles and will increase to 350,000 later this year. Today’s news raises TMMI’s annual capacity to 365,000 vehicles by late 2014.