Tacoma Coming to San Antonio?

SC4333 · Aug 6, 2009

I searched around and it doesn't look like anyone has posted anything pertaining to this yet, so here it goes.

It looks like Toyota is considering a big change for the San Antonio Toyota plant, which is now home to the Tundra. The city is currently in talks with Toyota and is creating an incentive package to offer Toyota in the event the Tacoma is moved to the San Antonio plant. Only time will tell but this would be one hell of a win-win situation for the city and Toyota.

Here is a news article from WOAI:

SAN ANTONIO -- Toyota is considering a move that could double its work force in San Antonio.

The company is expected to decide in the next 2 months whether to build a second vehicle here. Workers at the plant currently build the full-size Tundra trucks. If there's second vehicle, some believe the most likely option is the smaller Toyota Tacoma truck.

Right now, some of the Tacomas are built at plant in California through a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. However, GM has it's own money problems and is backing out of the deal, leaving Toyota to decide where to manufacture the Tacoma and the Toyota Corolla that's also built at that plant.

Mario Hernandez with the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation has had two meetings with Toyota officials and has a third scheduled for Thursday.

"We're ready to welcome a new production from Toyota," said Hernandez.

Hernandez is hoping to convince Toyota officials to build a second vehicle here and says that would bring thousands of jobs.

"What that means is a doubling of the work force, " Hernandez explained. "It means a completely new set of vendors that have to come here."

Between new vendors and plant workers, Hernandez says production of a second vehicle could create 4,000 to 5,000 jobs.

Right now, San Antonio's Toyota plant is operating below capacity. It produces 100,000 trucks a year, but can accommodate 150,000. Despite that, Hernandez believes Toyota would need to expand.

"Any new model that is built in San Antonio will require a complete retooling of the plant," Hernandez said. "It will be much different than the Tundra."

Top Toyota executives recently said they're looking at several options, including assuming full control of the plant in California or transferring production to Indiana, Mexico or San Antonio.

A Toyota spokesman told News 4 WOAI a decision hasn't been made. He did say that the workers here are top notch.
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Source - WOAI

Here is a time-line that depicts all of the major events for the San Antonio Toyota plant from its conception, to date.

Time-line - ExpressNews

007Tacoma · Aug 17, 2009

I just came across another article mentioning this possibility.

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.d...08169993/1197&AssignSessionID=373363629770591

This would be awesome for the San Antonio economy. I just hope that they give us some incentives for new Tacomas now. I never could find any for the Tundras that are built here. Then again - I never really wanted a Tundra.

BlancoTaco08 · Aug 17, 2009

Now this gives me another reason to do the tour of the toyota plant here in SA. Just to get a more taco flavored tour I will wait until a little after they start building the tacos to do the tour.

I've been told the tour is free but you have to make reservation.

http://www.visitsanantonio.com/visitors/play/attraction-details/index.aspx?id=2683

MattN03 · Aug 17, 2009

I'm hearing the same thing here at work (Tier 1 supplier).

SC4333 · Aug 28, 2009

It is time to give this thread an update.

Good news. It is offical, Toyota will be producing the Tacoma in SA.

Toyota Motor Corp. will be shifting production of its Tacoma truck from the troubled New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, Calif., to its company-owned Alamo City Tundra truck plant.
The production transfer will occur with the end of Toyota’s contract with the NUMMI plant, which was operated through a joint venture with General Motors. The move is expected to create some 1,100 new jobs over time at Toyota’s existing manufacturing facility in San Antonio, which currently has a workforce of some 1,850 people. City and county officials estimate that up to 100,000 Tacoma trucks will eventually be produced at the San Antonio facility, which is now dedicated solely to Tundra truck production.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff told the Business Journal previously that if Toyota elected to move some Tacoma production to San Antonio, that move would represent strong faith in the Alamo City.
“There will have to be some modifications made to the production line (in San Antonio) to make the Tacoma. It will take a $100 million investment or more just to do that,” Wolff said.
To date, Toyota says it has invested more than $1.3 billion in its San Antonio manufacturing facility.
The announcement of the planned shift in Tacoma production to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas Inc. plant located on San Antonio’s South Side came despite efforts by California lawmakers to offer financial incentives to keep open a production facility, which employs 4,700 workers.
The Toyota-GM partnership has run the Fremont plant since 1984. Toyota builds its Corolla compact car and Tacoma pickups there. The last Pontiac Vibe from GM rolled off the Fremont assembly line last week. The production of Corolla cars at the NUMMI plant will be shifted to Toyota’s plant in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, as well as to Japan.
“This will enable an uninterrupted supply of vehicles to dealers and customers in North America,” Toyota said in a press statement.
In July, the Business Journal reported that there were concerns about the future of the NUMMI facility and that a team of San Antonio leaders had traveled to California to meet with Toyota officials.
Former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, who was part of that delegation, told the Business Journal in late July: “Toyota has to decide if they will run Fremont by themselves or if they will take the activities in Fremont and put them somewhere else in the United States.”
Wolff said then that the trek to California was important, that “things are churning and we want to be right on top of it.”
Toyota Executive Vice President Atsushi Niimi, who oversees the automaker’s North American operations, said, “After the decision by General Motors to withdraw from the NUMMI joint venture, Toyota conducted a thorough review of its alternatives in light of current and anticipated market conditions. Based on this review, we have determined that over the mid- to long-term, it just would not be economically viable to continue the production contract with NUMMI. This is most unfortunate, and we deeply regret having to take this action.”
Toyota recently released U.S. sales figures for July and for the first seven months of 2009. Toyota says it sold only 6,313 of the full-sized Tundra trucks in July, a nearly 53 percent decline from its July 2008 sales total.
Year to date through July, Toyota says it sold 42,419 Tundras — down 52.6 percent from the same seven-month period in 2008.
The news isn’t much better for the Tacoma, a smaller truck.
During the first seven months of this year, Toyota sold 65,713 Tacomas. It sold 95,732 Tacomas during the same selling period in 2008.
Toyota did sell 7.6 percent more Tacomas in July 2009 than it did in July 2008.
Wolff says that because the Tacoma is a smaller truck, it attracts a larger audience than the Tundra, which he contends has “a limited market.”
Toyota has cut production of the Tundra at its San Antonio plant, which opened in 2003, as sales have lagged and inventories have piled up. Last fall, for example, Toyota halted production at its San Antonio plant for roughly three months and is still running only one production line at the Alamo City facility.
Toyota spokesman Mike Goss told the Business Journal previously that company officials still have plenty of faith in the company’s San Antonio plant.
“We remain optimistic about the Tundra,” Goss says. “It is holding its own in a very tough market for trucks.”
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro adds: “San Antonio can only benefit from a bigger (Toyota) presence.”

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CITED

drew02a · Aug 29, 2009

SC4333[OP] said: ↑

It is time to give this thread an update.

Good news. It is offical, Toyota will be producing the Tacoma in SA.

CITED
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That's great news. I didn't think it woul take Toyota long to realize that the demand for Tacomas was going to be way higher than Tundras and change their production accordingly, unlike American auto maker who had to face bankruptcy before changing anything.

007Tacoma · Aug 29, 2009

drew02a said: ↑

That's great news. I didn't think it woul take Toyota long to realize that the demand for Tacomas was going to be way higher than Tundras and change their production accordingly, unlike American auto maker who had to face bankruptcy before changing anything.
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