Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, Inc

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	2003
Headquarters	San Antonio, Texas, United States
Key people	Kenji Fukuta, President
Industry	Automobiles
Products	Tundra, Tacoma
Employees	1,850
Parent	Toyota Motor Corporation
Website	Toyota.com

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, Inc (TMMTX) is an automobile production subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation based in San Antonio, Texas, USA which owns and operates a manufacturing and assembly facility for the parent company. The TMMTX assembly lines currently produce the Tundra full-size pickup truck and the Tacoma mid-size pickup truck.

History

In 2002, Toyota began scouting locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas for a new assembly plant to build the second generation Tundra pickup. After long deliberations including the offer of $227 million in subsidies, a 2,000-acre (8.1 km²

) site in San Antonio was selected as the location for the new 2,000,000-square-foot (190,000 m²) assembly plant. Toyota broke ground at the new plant site on 17 October 2003. During construction, the project evolved from a simple assembly plant into an automotive production site including several on-site suppliers which shipped directly to the factory. In addition, Toyota announced that production capacity, originally planned for 150,000 units per year, would be expanded to 200,000 units. This increase brought Toyota's investment in the plant to $1.2 Billion. Following four years of construction, the first new Tundra pickups rolled off the line in November 2006 during a grand-openeing celebration which drew executives, employees and dealers of Toyota from around the country. One Toyota executive went so far as to call the launch of the second-generation Tundra the 'single biggest and most important launch in Toyota's 50-year U.S. history.'

Production

Second-generation Tundra production was initially split between TMMTX in San Antonio and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana in Princeton, Indiana (which had produced the first generation Tundra). The Base Cab (2 door) and Double Cab (2 full doors and 2 small doors) pickups were produced in San Antonio, with additional Double Cab Tundras and all CrewMax pickups produced in Princeton. The Tundra was initially hailed as a revolutionary step forward for Toyota Trucks, winning the Motor Trend Truck of the Year award in 2008; however the vehicle's reputation was marred by a recall of 15,000 units due to a mistake made by a supplier of a rear propeller shaft. This initial problem aside, the 2007 model year Tundra was a success with sales in 2007 almost selling out annual production of 200,000 units. The surge in oil prices driven by the commodity boom in 2008 put significant pressure on sales of the truck, and Toyota sold just under 140,000 Tundras the following year.

As the economic downturn put pressure on the US auto market, combined with the high fuel prices of the mid 2008, vehicle sales tumbled in late 2008 to the extent that Toyota shut down production at TMMTX for a three month period to reduce inventory of the Tundra pickup.

In late 2008, Toyota announced that all Tundra production would be moved to TMMTX (ending Tundra production in Princeton, Indiana). This announcement effectively preserved the jobs of the 1,850 workers at TMMTX that were threatened by the ongoing financial crisis. Following the bankruptcy announcement of partner General Motors (who subsequently withdrew from the venture), Toyota announced it would be terminating Corolla and Tacoma production at the NUMMI assembly plant. This change ultimately proved to benefit TMMTX, as Tacoma production was announced to be relocating to TMMTX, resulting in the addition of up to 1,000 workers to support the added production. This change effectively moved all of Toyota's US pickup production to TMMTX for the foreseeable future.

Vehicles produced

• MY 2007 Toyota Tundra (Base Cab and Double Cab Only)
• MY 2008 Toyota Tundra (Base Cab and Double Cab Only)
• MY 2009 Toyota Tundra (Base Cab and Double Cab Only)
• MY 2010 Toyota Tundra (All Models)
• MY 2011 Toyota Tacoma (All Models)

See also

• Toyota Motor Corporation
• Toyota Tundra
• Toyota Tacoma
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America
• Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana

External links

• Motor Trend report on TMMTX
• International Herald Tribune report