NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Tennessee is believed to be on the short list of states being considered by Toyota Motor as the site of its eighth North American plant, the governor of that state said in an interview.

Gov. Phil Bredesen told the Wall Street Journal that Toyota is looking at two different locations in his state, one near Chattanooga in eastern Tennessee, while the other is near Alamo in western Tennessee, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis.

The state is set to lose one of the two Saturn plants in Spring Hill, part of General Motors' plans to close or idle a dozen facilities in the next few years. The Saturn plant to be closed makes the Ion subcompact car.

The Journal reports that Toyota confirmed it is looking for a site to build another North American plant but won't disclosed any specifics about its site search, other than to say that a team of executives has been actively combing through North America to find a site.

The Japanese automaker, which sells more cars and trucks in the United States than in Japan, has five assembly plants in North America already and had announced plans to open a sixth in San Antonio later this year, and another one in Woodstock, Ontario, in 2008. In addition it has a number of parts plants and joint ventures operating in North America as well. It produced 1.55 million vehicles at its North American plants.

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