Toyota Motor Corp. is soliciting voluntary retirement from 2,000 of its U.S. workers, or about 10 percent of the automaker's total workforce in the country, in a program to replace veteran workers with younger ones, Toyota officials said Friday.

The automaker is offering incentives to employees who have worked at the company for more than 22 years, before they retire in the near future when they can receive pensions after working 25 years and impose a negative impact on production, they said.

The voluntary retirement program will be the largest ever offered to its U.S. workers. Most of those eligible work at the automaker's factory in Kentucky, which began production in 1988.

Between 20 percent and 35 percent of those eligible for the early retirement incentives are expected to apply. Toyota will let them leave and make up for the shortage with new recruits.