SAN ANTONIO - Texas – Toyota Motor Manufacturing officials hosted U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Tuesday at the company’s San Antonio plant.
They received a first-hand look at the production process as they toured the assembly line and spoke with employees about their jobs and the company itself.
The federal leaders told reporters they were impressed with how Toyota can integrate emerging technologies like AI and robotics while keeping people employed.
“One of the things this factory illustrates is that this factory has a lot of robotics built,” Cruz said. “It has a lot of AI built in and yet they’re hiring 2,000 additional workers, and what the technology is enabling those workers to do is be even more productive.”
“They’ve got such a strong automated advanced manufacturing footprint here that they can build on it and expand and actually export to the rest of the world,” Lutnick said
Tuesday’s visit comes a little more than a month after Toyota announced its $3.6 billion expansion.
The expansion will double the size of the current Toyota campus with a second vehicle assembly line that will see 150,000 Tacomas being built locally instead of across the border once construction is complete in 2030.
“They’re going to move those 150,000 trucks from Mexico to America and hire Americans, thousands of Americans, trained Americans and build those trucks right here,” Lutnick said.
According to a Toyota news release, the company said its Tacoma production carried out at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Baja California (Tijuana) will transition to Toyota San Antonio over four years, but Toyota will maintain its operations in Mexico with the plant’s future production plan under review.
Toyota also has operations in Toyota Motor Manufacturing Guanajuato (Apaseo el Grande).
Sonderling said San Antonio has the workforce for the new jobs at the new assembly line and said the company is not wasting any time recruiting and educating the local labor pool.
“Toyota is partnering with the Workforce Development Board. They’re partnering with community colleges. They’re going into middle schools, they are going into the high schools, they’re talking about all the opportunity here,” Sonderling said.
Cruz added that Toyota’s expansion plans are what is called the fruit of low taxes and reasonable regulations.
While construction of Toyota’s second vehicle assembly is slated to be completed by the year 2030, a Toyota official said permits have already been obtained and the construction will begin shortly.
Back in March, Toyota provided a soft tour of its new rear axle plant under construction on the campus. The rear axle provides power to the rear of the vehicle.
The plan for its construction was announced in June 2024, and construction is finishing up and is expected to be done by this fall.