Toyota Tacoma trucks on the sales lot at City Toyota on Feb. 28, 2024, in Daly City, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Toyota Motor on Monday announced that it is investing $3.6 billion to move production of the Tacoma midsize pickup truck from a plant in Mexico to its San Antonio, Texas, manufacturing campus.
The investment is expected to create 2,000 U.S. jobs at the facility, add a second vehicle assembly line and roughly double the size of the 2.7-million-square-foot plant by 2030, the automaker said. It will expand the plant’s annual capacity from roughly 200,000 to 350,000 units, Toyota said.
The announcement is part of Toyota’s stated plans to invest up to $10 billion more than previously expected domestically in the U.S. through 2030. It comes less than a week after the Trump administration confirmed it would not extend its trilateral trade pact with Canada and Mexico, instead opting to conduct annual reviews.
A Toyota spokeswoman said the company is “maintaining its operations in Mexico” as Tacoma production transfers from Tijuana to Texas over the next four years, but she declined to share additional details. The company plans to continue to produce Tacoma pickups at another Mexican plant in Guanajuato, she said.
“This investment expands Toyota’s manufacturing capacity and complements our broader North American production network,” she said in an email to CNBC.
The move comes more than six years after Toyota confirmed it would shift Tacoma production from the Texas plant to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Guanajuato plant in Mexico.
The Texas plant currently produces the Toyota Tundra full-size pickup truck, including a hybrid variant, and the Toyota Sequoia SUV hybrid. Toyota previously announced it was investing $531 million in a 500-million-square-foot rear axle plant on the campus that is slated to begin production in the fall.
Potential plans to expand the San Antonio plant, codenamed Project Orca, were first reported in May by Automotive News.
“Toyota’s continued investment in North America is a testament to our confidence in the region’s workforce, innovation and long-term growth potential,” Toyota Motor North America CEO Ted Ogawa said in a release. “By expanding our San Antonio plant, we are deepening our commitment to American manufacturing, creating meaningful and sustainable jobs, while advancing our mission to deliver high-quality vehicles that meet the changing needs of customers today and into the future.”
Toyota, which employs 48,000 people in the U.S., says it has invested $8.3 billion in the San Antonio plant since its groundbreaking in 2003.
The increased investment and production capacity could assist Toyota — the world’s largest automaker — in becoming the No. 1 carmaker in U.S. sales.
Toyota is forecast to narrow the gap in U.S. sales with America’s largest automaker, General Motors, this year as hybrids get more popular and all-electric vehicles sputter, according to Cox Automotive.
The Japanese automaker’s sales were up 0.5% through the first half of the year compared with 2025, to 1.24 million. GM, meanwhile, reported a 6.8% decline during that time, to 1.34 million vehicles sold.
Toyota’s gains come as the automaker has rolled out new models, including all-electric vehicles, while continuing to double down on its hybrid vehicles, where it’s been a leader for decades.
GM, meanwhile, heavily invested in all-electric vehicles instead of hybrids, many times referring to them as a transitional technology. The Detroit automaker’s sole hybrid is a Corvette, while it offers a full lineup of EVs for luxury brand Cadillac as well as many models for other brands.
