<\/p>\n
Michael\u00a0Hernandez, a manager of assembly production, gives a demonstration at the new rear axle plant at Toyota Texas in San Antonio on Monday, March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Toyota\u2019s new plant on the South Side is still months from opening, but the automaker is gearing up for a shift from the construction phase to prepping the factory for production.<\/p>\n
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Once it\u2019s up and running at full speed in 2027, the $531 million plant will be pumping out half a million rear axles a year.<\/p>\n
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Hiring is underway, with managerial and skilled maintenance\u00a0roles filled. Construction on the sprawling 2,000-acre campus on the South Side is expected to wrap up in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the construction crews clear out, Toyota will be ready to put the plant through its paces\u00a0\u2014 running the assembly lines to make sure everything is operating properly before starting production in November.<\/p>\n
Elected officials recently donned neon vests and hard hats to get a sneak peak at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas\u2019 newest operation.<\/p>\n
Toyota decided to bring production of rear axles\u00a0in-house after its previous supplier stopped producing rear axles. The critical part transfers power from the engine to the rear wheels.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is very important for us to continue to focus on improving our cost efficiency, streamlining our production and managing overall quality,\u201d Toyota Texas President Frank Voss said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this facility here will allow us to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toyota is now working to fill its production positions, which account for more than 80% of the 411 new jobs being added by the plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So far, many of the positions at the factory have been\u00a0filled by promotions and transfers from the vehicle plant. Those vacancies will be filled by new hires.\u00a0<\/p>\n
READ MORE:\u00a0Toyota begins hiring at new San Antonio plant; will add 400+ employees this year<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Hiring for the production positions will occur over the next 16 months as production ramps up. Wages start at $22.50 an hour and rotation premium, just above the\u00a0median hourly wage of $22.29<\/a> for production workers in the San Antonio metro area in May 2024, the most recent data available.<\/p>\n San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones tours Toyota\u2019s new rear axle plant in San Antonio on March 2.<\/p>\n Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, left, and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai applaud during a presentation at the Toyota Texas Experience Center on March 2.<\/p>\n Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones pointed to Toyota\u2019s pay structure as a plus for San Antonio.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, that\u2019s what I care about,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be the third-poorest city in the country and then not demand that our employers pay people a living wage\u00a0\u2014 not just a living wage but a wage where they can enjoy their lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The workers will be operating five machining and working lines,\u00a0with three reserved for the Tacoma and two lines producing the same axle for the Tundra and Sequoia.<\/p>\n The plant will start off by producing rear axles for the Tundra and Sequoia. In December, it expects to be making rear axles for the Tacoma. It expects to reach full capacity\u00a0\u2014 producing 500,000 rear axles each year\u00a0\u2014 by May 2027.<\/p>\n Workers will be assigned to one of the plant\u2019s\u00a0three zones: welding, painting and assembly.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Production on the rear axles\u00a0will start in the welding zone, where much of the system is automated. Each welding station will have one to two automated welding robots.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of the work\u00a0\u2014 such as heavy arc welding\u00a0\u2014 will still be handled by humans. Arc welding is a process to join two pieces of metal together by using the heat produced by an electric arc.<\/p>\n Toyota is tapping into virtual reality tech to train its employees in heavy arc welding.<\/p>\n More than 20 team members already have been taught the skill using a new \u201cvirtual reality welding\u00a0dojo,\u201d said Sam\u00a0Wegehaupt, general manager for the rear axle plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0Toyota president gearing up for \u2018biggest challenge\u2019\u00a0\u2014\u00a0opening new plant at San Antonio site<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis virtual welding process is very similar to a video game, but it teaches our members how to actually weld,\u201d Wegehaupt said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting technique and it\u2019s very efficient. We don\u2019t have to actually burn steel or welding wire in order to get a lot of repetitions for welding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Once the welding work is complete, the parts are sent off to the painting zone. This phase requires 13 different dip tanks\u00a0\u2014 nine for cleaning and preparing, while the other four coat the product in paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next up is the assembly zone, which operates three lines: two for the Tacoma and one for the Tundra and Sequoia. The coated products are installed with components like differential gears and drive shafts that come from Toyota\u2019s Alabama plant.\u00a0Toyota operates 14 manufacturing plants<\/a> in North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n After the rear axle is assembled, it undergoes two final inspections to ensure there are no issues, such as leaks.\u00a0The plant will produce 17 variations of the rear axles, depending on factors like the vehicle being two-wheel or four-wheel drive.<\/p>\n Once the plant is operating at full capacity, it will be shipping out 25 trailers of axles\u00a0daily, with 300,000 of them going out to\u00a0Toyota Motor Manufacturing Baja California, Guanajuato for the Tacoma. The remaining 200,000 will be sent to the manufacturing plant across the street to be installed in the Tundras and Sequoias being built there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Workers stand by the assembly line at the new rear axle plant at Toyota Texas in San Antonio.<\/p>\n Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News Greg Rexroat, a senior manager over the rear axle unit plant, leads a recent tour at Toyota\u2019s new rear axle plant.<\/p>\n Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Sales of San Antonio-made Toyota electrified vehicles surge, continue outperforming their peers<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Those shipments will add to the traffic on Toyota\u2019s South Side campus.<\/p>\n Currently, about 1,250 supply trucks drive through the site\u00a0every day, according to Carla Underwood, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas vice president of manufacturing business operations and general manager of production control. Another 500 trucks will be added to the daily traffic flow once the new plant is fully operational,\u00a0she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n To handle that additional traffic, Toyota is putting in new roads, and the city is adding an entrance to the rear axle plant off Applewhite Road.<\/p>\n In addition, Toyota and the city are pushing for South Texas Parkway to be built.\u00a0The proposed 15-mile freeway would run south of Loop 410\u00a0\u2014 near the Toyota campus\u00a0\u2014 and connect Interstates 35 and 37.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The city of San Antonio has argued that the freeway would help alleviate freight traffic<\/a> from industrial operations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need the South Texas Parkway,\u201d Jones said, calling it a \u201ckey part\u201d of the city\u2019s legislative agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0What you need to know about a proposed new freeway on South Side<\/a><\/p>\n The proposed parkway would help handle the additional traffic coming from the South Side campus to Toyota\u2019s plants in Mexico, where the Tundra is manufactured.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Toyota Texas President Frank Voss\u00a0also will be keeping an eye on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement<\/a> review this July and how President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff policies could end up affecting<\/a> it. Voss is also is Toyota Motor North America\u2019s group vice president of Region 4\u00a0\u2014 a North American supply chain that stretches from Mexico through Canada that\u00a0includes Toyota Motor Manufacturing Baja California, Guanajuato and Toyota Auto Body California.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a consideration for Jones, who said trade is one of the issues she aims to bring up during the SA to DC trip later this month.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen these things are pumped out, they\u2019re going to go straight to Mexico,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do everything possible to keep barriers low so that we can continue producing at the highest amount.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Workers stand by the assembly line at the new rear axle plant at Toyota Texas in San Antonio.<\/p>\n Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael\u00a0Hernandez, a manager of assembly production, gives a demonstration at the new rear axle plant at Toyota Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[933,82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-195641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-austinlatest","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","11":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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