In San Antonio, Texas, the heart of America’s pick-up truck country, Toyota makes one of the biggest passenger vehicles on the road. At its sixth and newest functioning US vehicle plant, the car company that propelled itself to the top of the global car industry largely by selling Americans reliable, fuel-efficient compact cars makes nothing but the Tundra large pick-up truck, which gets only about 17 miles to the gallon.

In launching the new Tundra, Toyota is breaching one of the last bastions of America’s three struggling Detroit-area carmakers. Toyota’s new extra-large version of the truck competes squarely with the Ford F-Series, General Motors’ Chevrolet Silverado and Chrysler’s Dodge Ram, which are among the respective companies’ top-selling and most profitable vehicles.