March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., preparing to sell a revamped Prius hybrid later this year, may review plans to build the car in Mississippi and possibly make another model in the state, the company’s U.S. sales chief said.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, in December halted construction of an assembly plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, amid plunging vehicle sales. The company is only completing the exterior for now, and hasn’t said when the factory may open.

“It’s conceivable that something else could go potentially in there,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, told reporters in Washington yesterday. “It was originally designed for Highlander, then switched to Prius. “That decision can still be moved around.”

The U.S. auto sales plunge that began in 2008 with a credit crunch, falling home values and recession forced the company to make the biggest production cuts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico since it began building autos in the region in the late 1980s. Toyota’s U.S. sales fell 15 percent last year, and are down a further 36 percent in 2009’s first two months.

All Prius hatchbacks sold in the U.S. are now imported from Japan. It’s still Toyota’s intent to make the car in Blue Springs when the factory eventually opens, spokesman Mike Michels said.

Debt Payment

Installation of assembly equipment at Blue Springs is “on hold until we have a sense for when the market is going to improve,” Lentz said. When the factory was announced in 2007 the company said it would make Highlander sport-utility vehicles, before deciding in July 2008 to build the Prius there instead.

Toyota in January said it will pay debt-service costs for state and local borrowers in Mississippi after delaying the $1.3 billion plant project. The company also agreed to help suppliers make promised payments. Toyota’s first $10 million share of debt is due in April 2010.

Lentz was in Washington yesterday to meet with the Obama administration’s auto industry task force. He told the group Toyota has “real concerns” suppliers in the U.S. may run short of cash amid the current market slump.

The Toyota City, Japan-based company’s U.S. sales unit is based in Torrance, California.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; John Hughes in Washington jhughes5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 11, 2009 23:12 EDT