TIJUANA, Mexico, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. said on Friday that it will invest $140 million in its new manufacturing facility in Mexico to produce 20,000 small pickup trucks annually, the latest challenge to U.S. automakers' strongest segment of the market.
The Japanese automaker said that it will begin building the Tacoma pickup trucks at a 700-acre site it owns outside Tijuana, Mexico in 2005 with a workforce of 460.
Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, said the facility will also have capacity to build 170,000 truck beds for the Tacoma small pickup truck to be used at its plants in Mexico and the United States. Toyota began building a plant to make truck beds there earlier this year.
Toyota executives said this month they planned to build another assembly plant in North America as part of plans to boost their global vehicle market share to 15 percent from 10 percent over the next decade. Much of that growth is targeted for North America.
Toyota already sells pickup trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles in the United States, but executives have said that there's room for further expansion.