Toyota Plans to Shut San Antonio Plant for 3 Months

Will Cause Highly Demanded Production of the Prius to Skyrocket

With increased gas prices consumers are not looking to buy a pickup truck. According to autonews.com, the demand for pickup trucks has fallen more than 40% since January. Toyota has come up with a plan to shut down the less than year old Tundra plant in San Antonio. The plan consists of closing the plant for three months (to begin in August). This should then reduce Toyota being overstocked with the popular Tundra pickup truck.

The reason for the change is to reduce inventory by quite a bit and relieve much felt pressure of the sales team. Compared to June of 2007, this year sales of the Tundra has fallen a whopping 53%, according to Toyota. Toyota thinks this is the best plan for the company and they will strive to continue to be the #1 requested vehicle manufacturer.

Just because Toyota is at the top of vehicle sales doesn't mean they can't feel the hits of the economy. They created the $1.3 billion dollar plant in San Antonio plant to manufacture Tundra's. The plant has over 2,000 employees plus employees of suppliers. I'm sure they didn't know at the time that gas prices were going to skyrocket within a year. The economic issues were unforeseen and Toyota is doing what they feel is the best recovery method.

As of now, Tundra's are also being manufactured in Princeton, Indiana. Toyota plans to shift the production of the Tundra completely to San Antonio by November. There is a plan underway to have that plant be the production hub for the Toyota Highlander which is originally produced in Mississippi. The Mississippi plant will then be the new site for the highly demanded Toyota Prius. Toyota hopes that moving the production of the Prius will help with the increased demand of the gas-saving hybrids. There simply aren't enough to go around right now. A $23,000 Prius can be sold on Ebay today for almost $35,000. Americans want this car and Toyota is determined to bring it to us.