REPORT: Toyota moving Tacoma production to San Antonio
Now that Toyota has decided the fate of the NUMMI plant, the company has to decide where to move production of the Tacoma and Corolla models built there. The Corolla hasn't been spoken for yet, but Toyota is confirming that its Tacoma line is moving to the San Antonio factory that currently makes the Tundra pickup.
Toyota will spend $100 million on tooling for the Tacoma, and city and county officials guess that annual units will number about 100,000. It is also estimated that 1,100 new hires will be added to the factory employment rolls, which includes the 21 suppliers on the campus. Building the new truck will give the plant the second shift it's been missing since last summer, when it went down to a single shift as auto sales declined.
For the NUMMI workers, Toyota's announcement only makes the finality all the more real. Discussions with NUMMI laborers remains ongoing, and it has been mentioned that Toyota could move some California workers to Texas. However, with San Antonio offering tax breaks based on hiring some local workers, the chances of that are probably slim. Thanks for the tip, Tony.
[Source: My San Antonio]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
why not the LS2LS7? 4:36PM (8/28/2009)
Seems like a wise move. I'm sure we'll miss the jobs lost at NUMMI, but if you're Toyota and you have a plant running on one shift, you stand to save a ton of money by moving production of another vehicle there instead of keeping another plant open.
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Erik 4:43PM (8/28/2009)
They might as well do something with that big ol' plant they built down there. They must have lost a fortune on that whole deal, but it's really their own fault for thinking they could sell so may Tundras.
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Aprime 4:49PM (8/28/2009)
Why are you talking about Tundras when we're discussing TACOMAS?
why not the LS2LS7? 4:52PM (8/28/2009)
The plant was built with the expectation of making a lot of Tundras there. The Tundra has not sold nearly as well as Toyota thought, just leaving room to make Tacomas at the same plant on the evening shift.
Erik 4:52PM (8/28/2009)
I am talking about Tundras because this article is about moving the Taco production to a Tundra plant. The reason they are able to do that is because the plant isn't running anywhere near capacity because Tundra has not sold anywhere near as well as Toyota anticipated.
montoym 4:55PM (8/28/2009)
Because the plant was intended to build Tundras originally.
Just happens that Toyota overestimated how many they would actually be able to sell so they are nowhere near capacity. Combine that with the weakened climate for new vehicle sales and what we are left with is Toyota trying to find ways to take up the extra capacity in their uber-expensive relatively new plant. Building another line of pickups there(Tacomas) fills that void nicely.
Make sense now?
Smokem 4:52PM (8/28/2009)
That's good. They need to get away from union because all they do now a days is hurt the automaker.
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Level 5:17PM (8/28/2009)
thats what GM and Chrysler should of done and cut off the Unions which hurts the bottom line in the profits...GM pretty much sells more cars then anybody and they still go broke...
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Name A Song From Tasmin Archer ? 6:18PM (8/28/2009)
It appears Akio Toyoda and gang are wasteing no time in getting this great car maker back into good shape. There will many decisions made over the next few months and i am sure most of us will be keen to follow how things evolve for this company.
ps. Toyota to win Montreal this weekend !!
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Nick 6:19PM (8/28/2009)
Ahhh yes Unions. That same people who brought you weekends, they are just terrible!
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MoonRover 7:47PM (8/28/2009)
These people that bash unions are either ignorant of what unions have done for the common working man, or have brains as small as their penis.
Erik 8:03PM (8/28/2009)
Unions had their place in time, no argument there. But there is also no argument that they have LONG since outlived their usefulness
Tim 1:14PM (8/29/2009)
Unions are a relic. At this point there are laws that protect the reasonable rights of employees (and beyond that too) so all the unions do is drive up prices and drive down quality. They hurt the American economy and, in turn, the American people.
Art 6:26PM (8/28/2009)
we'll see if everything truly is bigger in texas...
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daleam 8:40PM (8/28/2009)
They had to do something with that plant after they effed up the Tundra. What a piece of crap!
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Jared 8:47PM (8/28/2009)
Toyota would rather spend $100M than continue to build cars at NUMMI. That says something about the union.
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Judy Zik 10:04PM (8/28/2009)
1) It is highly doubtful that Toyota would be moving any of their Unionized workforce to Texas.
2) I would send this as a tip but you never bother with them if they have to do with Canada. The Corolla production is headed to Cambridge Ontario (with a plant in Japan picking up the excess). They already produce Corolla's and Matix's there. This news came out the same time as the news on the Taco so I don't know why you say it is not known.
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Avinash machado 1:49AM (8/29/2009)
Maybe it would be better if they killed the Tundra. Truck buyers are largely loyal to the domestic brands.
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Leclerc 9:45AM (8/29/2009)
Machado, think before making such a dumb statement. The Tundra is a decent truck who's buyers are also pretty loyal. Toyota's only mistake is overestimating how many trucks they forecasted to sell. I think scaling back their production would be the smart thing to do especially in this economy. Do you really think killing their full size truck all together would be the prudent thing to do? Think about your statement, it wasn't very well though out.
daleam 11:02AM (8/29/2009)
Tundra is crap.