Over the course of the truck’s 20-year lifespan, Toyota has consistently sold over 2.2 million Tundra trucks.
In May 1999, Toyota started producing the first-generation Tundra in Indiana; the vehicle went on sale this summer, 20 years ago. Unsurprisingly, Toyota’s words of celebration for the Tundra as it turns 20 relate largely to longevity: a ’07 Tundra driven repeatedly through a forest fire on rescue operations; a ’18 Tundra with a million miles.
It’s not like Toyota will show off some cutting-edge technology or attention-grabbing features. Since the second-generation Tundra’s manufacture started in Texas in 2007, the Tundra has essentially remained the same vehicle.
The Tundra’s sales performance is indistinguishable from the truck’s failure to advance.
It’s true that Tundra volume pales in comparison to what Detroit brands generate. In the US, the best-selling Ford F-Series regularly produces more than seven times as much as the Tundra. Alternatively, consider it this way: The combined sales of the F-Series, FCA’s Ram, and GM’s Silverado and Sierra in calendar year 2018 were 2,251,445just slightly more than the Tundra has achieved in its entire life. This means the Tundra is left to basically fight for scraps; Detroit’s foursome commands 93 percent of the full-size market.
Yet the Tundra, now entering its second generation’s 14th model year, is headed toward what may be a 10-year U.S. sales high. The Tundra is expected to reach six figures in sales for the eighth year in a row in 2019. Actually, the consistency is so uncanny.
Between 2012 and 2018, Toyota sold 114,537 units annually on average, never deviating by more than 4% from the average or by more than 11% from the norm. Toyota will sell between 118,000 and 119,000 Tundras this year, like it did in three of the previous five years, if 2019 sales continue at their current rate. Since 2004, the market share of the Toyota Tundra in the full-size pickup truck segment in America has not dropped below 4.9 percent, and since 2008, it has not gone beyond 7.0 percent.
The Tundra never reported abnormal results; instead, it was only a full-size truck in 2007 and 2008, the first two years it had a V8 engine with a suitable large displacement. Tundras made up about 9% of the full-size trucks sold in America in 2007 and 2008. Over the course of that 24-month period, 333,804 Tundras were sold. The Tundra experienced a 58 percent increase in volume year over year in 2007, as its Detroit rivals saw their sales fall by 7 percent. If it weren’t for the truck’s relative youth, the unusual degree of Tundra consistencyaside from one little outlierwouldn’t be as striking. The cicada-like gestation of the Tundra is distinctly out of date with the pickup truck industry today.
Ford has launched two brand-new F150s since the second Tundra went on sale, in addition to the ongoing powertrain improvements that Ford announces year after year after year. General Motors introduced new pickups in 2007, roughly coinciding with the release of the second-generation Tundra, but new full-size trucks were then introduced in 2014 and again in 2019. Ram has also introduced two completely new pickup models since the current Tundra first appeared on the market.
Nevertheless, the Tundra continues to operate despite terrible fuel economy (owners on Fuelly average less than 15 miles per gallon), maximum towing capacities that fall far short of the class leader, a lack of configurations, clumsy ride and handling, disappointing IIHS crash test results, and amusing engine noise.
The reputation that tundras do indeed keep going, and going, and going, is at the core of its attractiveness. For instance, in terms of 2019 Best Retained Value, the Tundra is the best vehicle in its class. This has had a major impact on residuals. The 2019 Best Retained Value title for full-size trucks was given to the Tundra by Edmunds.
However, 2020 is probably going to be the 14th and final year for the second-generation Tundra. It’s finally time for the Tundra to evolve, albeit its continued inability to dominate large segments of the market for full-size pickup trucks is likely to be a sign of things to come.
In This Article...
How many Toyota Tundra vehicles are produced daily?
One out of every seven full-size pickups sold in the country is sold in Texas, which is known as the full-size pickup sales capitol of the country. It was possible to construct such a sizable facility on a sizable tract of flat, open land in the region south of San Antonio. The United States has a lot of open space, but it might be difficult to find a piece that size close to important transportation and workforce hubs.
Access to the state’s transportation infrastructure, both rail and roadway, is a significant feature provided by the San Antonio site. In order to ship out finished Tundras and bring in parts and resources, the factory needs two-way transportation. The factory is close to the east-west Interstate 10 and the north-south Interstate 35, which connect it to the country’s interstate highway network. Additionally, it is right next to two rival train lines. As a result, Toyota was able to construct docks for loading numerous train cars simultaneously and connections to each of these lines.
The availability of a sizable pool of skilled personnel was the second important aspect that led the Tundra company to select San Antonio as the location for its new production. The second-largest city in Texas and the eighth-largest city overall is San Antonio. More than 100,000 people applied for the 2,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs Toyota was hiring for. The firm tries to represent the diversity of the neighborhoods where it operates. The staff at TMMTX is representative of San Antonio’s varied population, which is around 60% Hispanic.
Given the 6.5 million cubic yards of soil moved, the 250,000 yards of concrete poured (enough to pave a two-lane highway 53 miles long), the 15,000 tons of steel built, and the 10 acres of railway siding installed, building the factory was a significant undertaking.
The result is a 2.2 million square foot, or 46 acres, primary plant constructed to create the 2007 Tundra from the ground up, starting with coils of steel rolling into one end of the facility and ending with shiny, potent trucks rolling out the other. The project cost a total of $1.28 billion. The facility has stamping, welding, paint, plastics, and assembly areas where members of the TMMTX team can assemble up to 750 Tundras per day.
There are distinct production and assembly facilities on-site for 21 different part and component suppliers that are seamlessly connected with the main factory. Thus, an additional 1.8 million square feet of space was built to house their operations and the 2,100 extra staff. This arrangement has several benefits, not the least of which is the reduction of logistics expenses. Traditionally, the Midwest and South have been home to car suppliers. Parts shipping expenses are decreased by having them on-site. The primary Tundra production site receives parts as they are required. Only about 80% of the new Tundra’s material is homegrown, with the remainder coming from Japan.
Co-location expedites communications as well. When issues develop, TMMTX and its local supplier partners can act rapidly to address them. Additionally, it benefits the environment by lowering pollutants caused by over-the-road trucks. Last but not least, the local suppliers made additional investments totaling $300 million at the site, substantially boosting the local economy.
Seven of the 21 on-site suppliers, including six new joint ventures with San Antonio-based companies and stalwart American and Japanese auto industry suppliers, are minority-owned. Minorities own the majority of these seven corporations. This is a novel strategy for assisting the expansion of a supplier base of minority businesses.
Tundra’s construction is a meticulously planned process. Orders are first placed by Toyota Motor Sales (TMS). They produce long-term projections so that production controllers may instruct plants on exactly what to construct and manufacturing can order parts. Each bare chassis that is put through the “sequence build” process has a paper manifest attached that, like a recipe, lists the kinds of parts the truck will need. To guarantee that components are delivered to the line to match the cars, this calls for a sophisticated parts-delivery system. For example, having the seat firm on site enables the seat company to receive a list of the precise vehicles to be manufactured that day and their construction order. Shipped to the factory, the finished seats are loaded onto the assembly line in the correct sequence. Members of the team confirm that the seat is accurate.
Operations at TMMTX gradually increased. The plant started developing the truck in prototype versions in September 2006. This stage was created to confirm
The production floor of TMMTX uses a combination of automation and labor. Robots handle a large portion of the work in the plant’s welding and painting sections. Painting and welding are handled by nearly 400 people, making them roughly 90% automated.
Numerous “assist devices” support assembly workers in lifting and moving large, clumsy objects like seats and doors even when manpower is the primary means of transportation. It takes roughly 24 hours from raw, coiled steel to finished, painted, rolling, and operating state-of-the-art pickup using this inventive combination of labor and machinery.
Environmentally advanced
Toyota’s newest production plant will be the business’ most environmentally-advanced to date, in keeping with its cutting-edge technology and procedures. For instance, TMMTX has made it a priority to use exclusively cartridge-based paint systems, which reduce emissions from paint booths. The benefit is that it does away with the requirement to clean paint lines whenever a color change is done. It is a first for Toyota in North America to use a water-born paint system in the priming paint booth, further safeguarding the environment. [Note: Chrysler and other manufacturers have long utilized similar techniques.]
In reality, water is a significant factor in this part of Texas, and TMMTX uses a variety of water-saving techniques. The plant was built to use the least amount of resources feasible. For all of its operations, TMMTX purchases recycled water from the San Antonio Water System. The kitchen and restrooms at the plant are the only areas that use fresh water.
The San Antonio plant reduces waste in a number of ways, in addition to preserving resources and avoiding emissions. It functions as a zero-landfill facility, which means that no garbage will be dumped. The facility will recycle a lot.
For example, scrap steel will go back to the steel plant, and scrap plastic will be shred and sent to a company that makes pellets. Even the amount of new part packing that would typically be discarded has been reduced. Plastic pallets will be an improvement over wooden pallets. Plastic may be reused repeatedly for a considerably longer period of time than wood, which breaks down and wears out before needing to be disposed of in a landfill.
In 2022, will there be a Toyota Tundra shortage?
Toyota Tundra 2022: Production will decrease globally, but not for the new Tundra. Supply limitations continue to have an impact on the industry even as Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) prepares for the 2022 Tundra to enter the roads. This is not the time to slow down because the Tundra has not seen a complete redesign since 2007.
Why is there a shortage of tundra?
The business stated that it anticipates continuing shortages that will have an impact on output at its North American locations due to supply chain and COVID-related issues. Officials are making efforts to reduce the output impact.
“Although the situation is still uncertain, we anticipate a loss of between 25,000 and 30,000 vehicles in North America in February. At this time, we do not foresee any effects on employment, she continued.
In a follow-up email, Stefanich added that over the previous few months, Toyota’s had “All of its North American production facilities have experienced sporadic cutbacks and interruptions as a result of the issues.
The Toyota Tundra, the company’s full-size pickup truck, is currently being modernized when the interruptions at the San Antonio facility occurred. The manufacturer anticipated boosting sales in the booming truck industry.
Toyota Motor Corp., which will once again be the world’s best-selling automaker in 2021, said last month that COVID-19 restrictions caused the supply of semiconductors and other components built in China to be disrupted, forcing it to close 11 different assembly factories in Tokyo. The COVID-19 spread is being halted by some of the strictest regulations in the world in China.
What number of Toyota Tundras are sold annually?
When the Tundra first came out, detractors said it was “too small to compete in the pickup truck sector.”
After Toyota sold 100,455 Tundra cars in its first year, all skepticism was dispelled. The first year sales of the Tundra were the greatest in Toyota history and quadruple those of the previous T100 model.
Since then, the Toyota Tundra’s annual sales have remained consistent, averaging around 118,879 units. Sales of the Tundra have never fallen below 100,000 units annually, with the exception of the years between 2009 and 2011. Over the duration of the Tundra’s 20-year history, Toyota has sold 2,377,571 units.
The Tundra’s annual sales are shown down below since it first became available in the United States:
How much time does Toyota spend producing a Tundra?
If you haven’t already reserved your 2022 Toyota Tundra, hold off on getting too enthusiastic about its impending arrival at dealerships.
Toyota has been promoting the third generation of its full-size pickup truck, but dealers anticipate a four to 1.5 year wait for a new model, and nine to 18 months for the Toyota Tundra TRD Pro in 2022.
Will Toyota discontinue the Tundra?
The Drive has learned via a source that Toyota intends to stop producing V8 engines. This features the 5.7-liter V8 engine that is currently found in a number of vehicles, including the Lexus LX, Tundra, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser. According to reports, Toyota has instructed its Huntsville, Alabama, V8 engine factory to first create a large quantity of V8 engines before starting to produce 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 engines. The manufacturing transition is predicted to take place over the next 2-3 years.
This is consistent with earlier rumors that the new Toyota Tundra will make its debut in the latter half of 2021. Uncertainty exists on whether this schedule will be affected by the global viral shutdowns.
According to earlier reports, Toyota will employ two variations of the new 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 (aka. GR-series of engines). A basic variant and a version coupled with an electric hybrid system will both be available.
The 3.5-liter capacity of a twin-turbo V6 is unique in some way. This displacement has been in use by Ford from about the 20102011 model years. Another rumor states that the forthcoming 2021 Ford F-150 will include a 3.5-liter TT V6 and a 3.5-liter TT V6 electric hybrid.
The Lexus LS, of course, has been equipped with a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6. This engine is rated at 416 horsepower. In the LS, this engine is also mated to a hybrid setup.