Toyota Motor Corp. announced late Thursday it will end its production contract at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. assembly plant in Fremont, CA, next March, shifting assembly of NUMMI-manufactured Tacoma midsize pickups to Toyota's recently built plant in San Antonio, TX.

The NUMMI facility was a joint-venture operation between Toyota and the General Motors Co., but in June, just prior to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, GM said it was vacating the NUMMI operation and leaving its ownership in the venture with the "old" GM.

GM did not see a future for NUMMI and shortly thereafter Toyota also began to send signals it, too, might abandon the venture that began in 1984. GM ended production of the Pontiac Vibe (a badged variant of the Toyota Matrix) on Aug. 17.

Toyota was to announce Thursday evening it will shut down at NUMMI in March, with NUMMI's Tacoma production moving to Toyota's underutilized San Antonio Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas (TMMTX) plant that currently builds the Tundra fullsize pickup. Like all manufacturers of fullsize pickups, Toyota has been hurt by drastically declining pickup demand.

TMC executive vice president Atsushi Niimi said, "After the decision by General Motors to withdraw from the NUMMI joint venture, Toyota conducted a thorough review of its alternatives in light of current and anticipated market conditions. Based on this review, we have determined that over the mid- to long-term, it just would not be economically viable to continue the production contract with NUMMI. This is most unfortunate, and we deeply regret having to take this action."

Toyota also produces the Corolla at NUMMI, and the company indicated that capacity will shift to the company's Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc. plant in Cambridge, Ont., Canada.

As even mighty Toyota finds itself with excess production capacity in North America and elsewhere, the Japanese automaker has finally made the decision to shutter an assembly plant. The loss of the Pontiac Vibe means that it wasn't viable to keep the NUMMI factory in Fremont, CA operating on its own, but the rest of the products it builds are still in demand to varying degrees.

We've already heard that production of the mid-size Tacoma pickup truck would be consolidated with its big brother the Tundra in San Antonio TX. The other remaining product from NUMMI was the Corolla sedan. The volume that had been produced in California will reportedly now come out Toyota's Cambridge, Ontario factory where the compact car is already built. It's not known at this time if the move will result in any additional jobs at the Cambridge plant.