简体中文
By APD writer Alice
Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan will pour $391 million into its Texas truck plant to build next-generation pickups as part of a drive to boost output in the US and ease trade tensions with the Trump administration, according to the Japan Times.
The spending announced for the San Antonio factory comes six months after the automaker pledged to shell out an additional $3 billion on its US operations by 2021, a move seen as an effort to head off threatened US tariffs on vehicles imported from Japan. That was on top of an earlier $10 billion US investment pledge Toyota made shortly before President Donald Trump took office.
It is part of Toyota’s multi-decade production-localization drive, but also reflects a strategy to convince Trump not to follow through on tariffs of as much as 25 percent on imported vehicles and parts. The Japanese carmaker has publicly pushed back on the administration’s claim that foreign automakers pose a national security risk to the US.
Following a months-long probe, the administration in May cleared the way for tariffs on imported cars and components. But the White House has put off imposing them while it pursues trade deals with Japan and the European Union.
President Trump has said the US will reach an initial trade deal with Japan in the coming weeks, but did not mention his threat of duties on $50 billion worth of Japanese autos. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s camp has warned any final deal must include assurances that Washington won’t hit the country’s car sector with new duties.
No new direct jobs were announced for the factory in San Antonio, Texas, which currently employs more than 3,000 workers. Toyota said the funds will be used to incorporate “various advanced technologies” on the production lines for the Tacoma and Tundra.
In recent years, Toyota has had difficulty supplying dealers enough of the two trucks to meet demand. The company also makes the Tacoma at a plant in Tijuana, Mexico, and plans to build the model at another plant that’s under construction in Guanajuato.
The full-size Tundra is only made in San Antonio. Next year, it’s expected to undergo its first full model change since 2007. Future iterations of both trucks will share a chassis and other core components with the more limited volume Tundra, the trade publication Automotive News reported earlier this year.
The Tacoma has been the best-selling midsize truck in the US for the past 14 years, but Toyota’s lock on the segment is being challenged by rivals. General Motors Co. launched a pair of mid-size pickups in 2014, and Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have debuted competing models this year.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
