Toyota To Expand A $150M Plant In Mexico To Increase The Production Of The Toyota Tacoma

Sep 16, 2016 06:50 AM EDT | Karen Conda

The 2016 Toyota Tacoma V-6 is just unstoppable. This truck is reliable, easy to operate and really tough. And with this performances, it's no brainer that it will be sold in the market.

And true enough, Toyota is forced to expand its plant in Tijuana, Mexico, to accommodate the production of the said unit. 

"Demand for trucks has grown exponentially," Toyota Motor North America CEO Jim Lentz said in the statement. "By leveraging our manufacturing facilities' availability and expertise, we can be nimbler and better adjust to market needs in a just-in-time manner."

According to reports, Toyota will spend $150M for this plant expansion. They are aiming to increase the production of the Tacoma 160,000 units annually by early 2018. By that, they are increasing their production to 60,000 units a year. 

This expansion of their plant from Baja California factory which according to Toyota, already stretched its limit will also add 400 new jobs for the Toyota workforce.

The Tacoma is built alongside the Tundra at Toyota's facility in San Antonio, Texas. Even with full capacity, the plant can't keep up with the demand for Tacoma. The plant produced 111,000 Tacomas and 122,000 Tundras, and Toyota hopes to increase total production to 250,000 units by the end of 2016.

The Toyota Tacoma dominates the U.S. midsize pickup market, growing to 21 percent this year. The Tacoma is challenged by General Motors Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon 2016 model, Honda's Ridgeline and Nissan's Frontier pickup. 

Even so, the sales of the Tacoma and Tundra are still limited, and according to David Crouch, vice president of administration and production control at the factory, it is mainly because of the lack of supply.

It is also the reason for the decrease in shares of the company. It went down to 43 percent, from 51 percent a year earlier.

"Obviously, one of the biggest challenges that we have for Tundra and Tacoma is we're capacity-limited," he said during an interview with Automotive News in July. "We could sell a lot more trucks right now."

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