Japanese carmaker Toyota will invest $170mn in its Apaseo el Grande plant in Guanajuato, Mexico to increase car production for exports to the US market.
The investment will enable Toyota to increase its production capacity for the Tacoma model from 100,000 to 138,000 units per year by 2022, the governor of Guanajuato, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo, said in a statement on September 17, adding that this investment will produce 500 new jobs.
Between January and August this year, Toyota exported 86,827 cars from Mexico, down from 126,482 vehicles exported during the same period last year, according to the latest National Institute of Statistical and Geographic Information (Inegi) data. Of this volume, 82,496 cars were exported to the US market between January and August this year.
Mexico’s car production fell by 13.1pc to 293,463 cars in August, from 337,898 cars in the prior-year period, while exports decreased by 8.5pc to 257,610 cars from 281,811 vehicles during the same period under comparison, Inegi noted.