Toyota to invest $3.6 billion to expand San Antonio plant and bring Tacoma production to Texas

Toyota Motor North America announced a $3.6 billion investment to expand its San Antonio-area assembly operations, aiming to more than double the facility’s size by 2030 and create more than 2,000 jobs. The project centers on adding a second vehicle assembly line that will support production of the Toyota Tacoma midsize pickup, alongside full-size vehicles built at the campus today.

The expansion is also described as a capacity and flexibility upgrade. Toyota said the added line will enable the plant to build the Tacoma “alongside” the full-size Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV, effectively grouping multiple vehicle programs on site. Toyota also pointed to an adjacent rear-axle plant announced last year that is nearing startup, underscoring that it is building out supporting components in parallel.

A key operational change is where Tacomas for the U.S. market are made. Toyota said the buildout will facilitate moving some U.S.-market Tacoma production away from its Mexico plants, with the transition planned by 2030. The company currently produces U.S.-bound Tacomas at two Mexico facilities, and WardsAuto reported that Toyota would not yet say what portion of U.S.-bound Tacomas would shift to Texas after the expansion.

Toyota’s Texas investment is scheduled to be phased over several years. WardsAuto reported that the Tacoma transfer to Texas is expected to occur over the next four years, aligned with the construction and production ramp at the expanded campus. Toyota said the project’s scale is about more than just a new line, including technology, site work, and infrastructure supporting suppliers and tooling.

Toyota also described how it plans to use part of the additional capital. In an email response cited by WardsAuto, Toyota said the extra $1.6 billion beyond earlier estimates would go toward advanced technology intended to keep assembly lines flexible for future products. The automaker also said the money supports additional site work and infrastructure for an on-site supplier park, supplier tooling, and pre-production labor.

Industry watchers will see the project as another example of automakers adjusting North American supply chains in response to ongoing tariff, logistics, and trade-policy uncertainty. Even without a full breakdown of how the Tacoma mix will change, the core message from Toyota is that it wants more U.S.-based production capacity for a high-volume pickup program, supported by a larger assembly footprint and related component capacity.

Still, several specifics remain unclear. Toyota did not provide the exact share of U.S.-bound Tacomas that will move from Mexico to Texas after the expansion, nor did it detail which Tacoma variants or powertrain configurations would be produced on the new line once it starts. The timeline also depends on construction and ramp conditions, which Toyota did not quantify beyond describing the transfer window as spanning the next four years and targeting full scale by 2030.

For now, the next things to watch are permitting and construction milestones for the second assembly line, plus what Toyota ultimately announces about the Tacoma production split by variant and market allocation once the ramp begins. Toyota also has not outlined how the expansion could affect employment beyond the headline job creation figure, including whether supplier jobs at the campus’s supplier park will scale in step with vehicle volume.