Dive Brief:
-
Toyota Motor North America on Monday announced it will invest $3.6 billion, a higher figure than originally estimated, to more than double the size of its assembly plant near San Antonio, Texas.
-
With a second assembly line, the expansion will allow the plant to build the Tacoma alongside the full-size Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV. An adjacent rear axle plant announced in 2024 is also nearing startup, Toyota says.
-
The expansion will create more than 2,000 jobs, facilitating a move of some U.S.-market Toyota Tacoma production from the current plant in Baja California, Mexico, to the Texas facility by 2030, according to the automaker. “Toyota’s continued investment in North America is a testament to our confidence in the region’s workforce, innovation and long-term growth potential,” said Toyota Motor North America President and CEO Ted Ogawa.
Dive Insight:
Toyota’s investment of $3.6 billion is 80% more than what the automaker had expected in May when it was confirmed to be assessing San Antonio for a potential expansion.
“The additional $1.6B investment will go towards advanced technology to ensure our assembly lines can remain flexible and adaptable to future products,” a Toyota Motor North America spokesperson told WardsAuto via email. “This investment also supports additional site work and infrastructure for our on-site supplier park, supplier tooling, and pre-production labor.”
Toyota currently produces U.S.-bound Tacoma trucks at two Mexico plants. In addition to the Baja California plant, where some versions are made, the Guanajuato plant is presently the home of all hybrid Tacoma production — and roughly half of U.S.-market Tacoma production.
The automaker hasn’t yet provided details on how the product mix might be handled between San Antonio and Guanajuato, or whether the Baja California plant would still produce Tacoma models for other markets after the shift.
Toyota confirmed to WardsAuto that once complete the new line will be capable of producing 150,000 units per year. Given Toyota’s U.S. sales of nearly 275,000 Tacomas in 2025, that suggests the second line at San Antonio might make more than half of U.S.-market Tacomas, while the other portion continues to come from Mexico.
In the May expansion assessment, Toyota had pointed to a 2028 opening for the facility. Toyota on Monday noted a 2030 target for completion of the plant expansion, with a four-year transition period of Tacoma production to San Antonio, but it wouldn’t yet disclose when the second line is expected to open or when that transition starts.
With Monday’s investment announcement, Toyota’s total investment in San Antonio sums to $8.3 billion since it broke ground on the Texas plant in 2003. Toyota said the facility addition “will enable increased flexibility for the plant through advanced manufacturing technologies and will align with Toyota’s broader North American operations,” but it declined to elaborate on which advanced technologies are being deployed at the factory.
“The 2,000 acres of South Texas ranchland our plant stands on today was purposefully selected for its ability to scale with vehicle demand, and today marks the first step toward realizing that potential,” said Frank Voss, group vice president of truck manufacturing, TMNA and president of Toyota Texas, in a release.
This is part of a November 2025 commitment from Toyota to invest up to $10 billion in the U.S. over five years. That also includes an investment of $912 million to boost U.S. hybrid production and $1 billion to boost production at its Kentucky and Indiana facilities.
Toyota confirmed to WardsAuto that with this investment it’s just over $5.5 billion toward that target.
In addition to this commitment, Toyota has also set up a sprawling battery plant for EVs and hybrids in North Carolina, representing a cumulative investment of nearly $14 billion.
