Toyota and Mazda have apparently picked Alabama as the site for the company's new $1.6 billion auto plant, according to sources in North Carolina and Alabama.

Reuters is reporting that a formal announcement is expected Wednesday.

Sources for months have said the decision was between North Carolina and Alabama. The Raleigh News & Observer is reporting that North Carolina lost out on the plant because it does not have the supply chain logistics that the car companies desire.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. announced in August a joint venture to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in the U.S. which would create 4,000 jobs and be up and running by 2021.

It is projected to produce 300,000 vehicles a year, with half being the Toyota Corolla and the rest an unspecified Mazda model. For some perspective, Alabama's Honda and Hyundai plants both produced more than 320,000 vehicles in 2017.

But the venture is more than that, as both companies hope to co-develop electric vehicles, safety features and connected-car technologies, according to published reports last year.

There has been no official confirmation from Alabama state officials, the City of Huntsville or from Toyota and Mazda as yet.

A 1,252-acre tract of farmland in Limestone County's Greenbrier community, which is part of Huntsville, is apparently the site where Toyota-Mazda might locate the plant.

The area, off Powell Road and Greenbrier Road, was passed over by Volkswagen in 2008 in favor of Chattanooga. Since then, it has been certified as a TVA Megasite, and an Advantage Alabama site by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.

The site is only a short drive from Polaris and the Target Distribution Center off Interstate 565.

Toyota, which is the world's largest auto maker, already has factories in Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas, as well as an existing engine plant in Huntsville. Last year, the company announced a $106 million expansion there.

Mazda stopped manufacturing vehicles in the U.S. in 2012.

Alabama was identified as one of 11 states early on where the plant might land. By mid-November, the list was down to two states, with North Carolina being the other.

Employment in the automotive sector in Alabama currently tops 57,000, with 25,000 jobs in the automotive supplier chains among more than 160 companies.