Donald Trump is taking aim at another automaker for making cars in Mexico. This time it’s Toyota, which plans to begin building its Corolla compact car there.
The automaker announced its plan to open a factory in Guanajuato, Mexico, in 2015. The company, which is based in Japan, stressed Thursday that the new Mexico plant will not cause any job losses in the U.S.
“Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY!” Trump tweeted on Thursday.
“Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.”
Toyota has already broken ground for the new factory, which is actually in Mexico’s Bajio region, not Baja. Toyota does have another factory in Baja that builds pickup trucks, some of which are exported to the United States.
The Corolla is the world’s best-selling car.
In a statement, Toyota pointed out that it has $22 billion invested in the U.S., which includes 10 manufacturing plans and 1,500 dealerships that employ a total of 136,000 workers.
The Guanajuato factory will start production in 2019 making completely redesigned Corollas that will be very different from the ones on sale now.
All of the Corollas that are currently sold in the United States are made at plants in either Ontario, Canada, or Mississippi.
