Detroit, Michigan – Toyota Motor Corp. will shift all production of the Tacoma midsize pickup from Texas to Mexico as it restructures its North American footprint and invests $13 billion in U.S. manufacturing operations through next year.
Toyota says no U.S. jobs will be lost as a result of the change, which also includes bringing the Sequoia SUV to the San Antonio plant by 2022. The Texas plant, which also assembles the Tundra full-size pickup, has produced the Tacoma since 2010.
The announced shift comes a month after Toyota started Tacoma production at a new plant in Central Mexico in addition to another Mexican plant in Tijuana that has been producing Tacoma pickups since 2004. Tacoma production at the new plant in Mexico had previously been announced, however not Toyota’s plans to end Tacoma production in Texas.
Tacoma production is expected to end at the plant in Texas in late 2021, according to Toyota. That will make room for additional Tundra production as well as the Sequoia SUV, which will end production at the company’s Indiana plant by 2022.
Additional vehicles could be added in the future as Toyota announced a $391 million investment for multi-vehicle production capabilities last summer. A Toyota spokesman declined to comment on any future production plans for the Texas plant.
The production changes, according to a company spokesman, are designed to group North American vehicle assembly plants based on shared platforms and common architectures to cut costs and improve operational speed and competitiveness.
Toyota says no U.S. jobs will be lost as a result of any of the production moves.
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