Staff report
President-elect Donald Trump has earned a reputation as fast on the Tweet, obviously his favorite form of social communication.
On Thursday, the president-elect had words for Toyota.
Here’s what Trump tweeted Thursday morning:
Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.
Toyota had a prompt response, distributed via its “Toyota Fast Facts” through email to all its employees, vendors and contacts.
Toyota has issued the following response to President-elect Donald Trump’s tweet on Thursday:
Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years. Production volume or employment in the U.S. will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico announced in April 2015.
With more than $21.9 billion direct investment in the U.S., 10 manufacturing facilities, 1,500 dealerships and 136,000 employees, Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump Administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry.
· In 2015 Toyota exported more than 160,000 U.S.-built vehicles to 40 countries, helping to establish the U.S. as a global export hub.
· Our manufacturing facilities in Baja, Mexico, established in 2002, support production at our San Antonio, Texas plant, where 3,300 team members produced over 230,000 Tundras and Tacomas in 2016.
· Recent manufacturing expansions by Toyota in the U.S. include:
o $360 million investment in Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky plant, adding 750 new jobs
o $150 million investment at its Huntsville, Alabama plant
o $100 million investment in Toyota’s Princeton, Indiana plant, adding 300 jobs
o $90 million investment at its Buffalo, West Virginia plant, adding 80 jobs.
Toyota has moved its North American operations from Northern Kentucky to a combined operations center in Plano, Texas, but its manufacturing operations are growing in Georgetown and many of the jobs from NKY have been moved there. The Georgetown manufacturing center produces Camry, Avalon and the Lexus ES350 as well as the Avalon Hybrid and the Camry Hybrid.
Toyota Manufacturing in Georgetown is the company’s largest vehicle manufacturing plant in North America where employment is about 7000 people and investment tops $5.9 million. Nearly 10 million vehicles have rolled off Toyota’s assembly line in Kentucky.
Toyota celebrated 30 years in Georgetown in 2016.
