Toyota to move Tacoma assembly to Mexico as part of massive North American production shift

Toyota announced Friday it will move production of its mid-size Tacoma pickup from the United States to Mexico as it adjusts production strategies around North America to better consolidate vehicles built on shared architecture.

This move will make room for more production of full-size trucks and SUVs in its San Antonio, Texas, facility, which will absorb production of the Sequoia SUV from its current Princeton, Indiana facility.

Toyota said it has completed a $1.3 billion modernization investment in its Indiana operations to add 550 jobs. Toyota said there would be no reduction to direct jobs at any of Toyota’s facilities across North America as a result of the vehicle moves.

The new North American trade agreement approved by the U.S. Senate on Thursday ensures that automakers will still be able to build pickup trucks in Mexico without facing new punitive tariffs.

Here's how all of the changes break down:

Toyota Texas (San Antonio)

Toyota will shift production of the Sequoia in 2022 to Texas and that plant will end production of the Tacoma by late 2021. Tacoma production will be shunted to Toyota’s Guanajuato plant in Mexico. Capacity at this facility will remain above 200,000 units per year.

While we learned last April that Toyota plans to build future Tundra and Tacoma models on the same architecture, this choice seems to indicate that Toyota's strategy relies just as much on size similarity as platform commonalities.