After a year of tariffs, automakers are still resistant to moving production to the US Toyota announced last week it would do something other automakers have been reluctant to do – shift some production from Mexico to the United States. The Japanese automaker will soon build half of its best-selling midsize Tacoma pickups at an expanded plant in San Antonio, where it already builds the Tundra full-size pickup and Sequoia SUV. But it will also continue to build Tacomas in Mexico. President Donald Trump heralded the shift to US soil, calling it “a really big deal” and proof of “Tariffs at work!” Toyota didn’t cite tariff policy as the catalyst. “While we are impacted by evolving trade policies, our investments are multi-decade decisions based on broader strategic goals,” the company told CNN. And more than a year after the Trump administration announced sweeping auto tariffs to spur construction of new American factories, Toyota’s move is the exception, not the rule. Few automakers have announced plans to move production to the United States. Most would rather pay tariffs than spend billions to build new facilities – and the product lines that are coming to the US are moving into existing factories. Forty-six percent of the cars purchased by US consumers last year were imported, according to Mobility Global, down only slightly from 47.7% in 2024. Some of that drop was because automakers wound down the sale of imported vehicles with lower price tags, such as the Nissan Versa. But there are too many costs and too much uncertainty for automakers to make widespread changes in their factory footprints. “It’s a huge commitment (to build a factory) and to do it on a whim would be borderline crazy,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at car buying site Edmunds. “So the safest action is no action.#toyota #president_donald_trump #san_antonio #general_motors #usmca
