By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp said on Monday it will build a new $3.6 billion auto plant in Texas and shift some truck production to the United States from Mexico.
The Japanese automaker said the new 2.5-million-square-foot building will be located on its San Antonio manufacturing campus and will open by 2030, creating 2,000 jobs. The car company said it will move production of its mid-size Tacoma pickup truck from the Toyota Manufacturing Baja California plant in Mexico to the Texas plant when completed.
Toyota will continue to build Tacoma trucks at its Guanajuato plant in Mexico. Toyota already produces Tundra trucks and SUVs at its existing San Antonio assembly plant on the site where the new plant will be built and a new 500,000-square-foot rear axle plant is set to open in the autumn.
President Donald Trump has pressured automakers to move more auto production to the United States and has hiked tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and parts.
Toyota said it remains committed to its operations throughout Mexico, Canada and the United States and urged Trump to extend a North American free trade deal that automakers say is critical to integrated auto production.
In 2020, Toyota moved Tacoma production from San Antonio to the Guanajuato plant, alongside the Baja plant that had produced the truck since 2004.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nia Williams)
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