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 on the far south side of 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-opening 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.'
Read more about this topic: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas
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