Toyota provides $2.1 billion to US battery manufacturing facility enlargement plans

Toyota will spend one other $2.1 billion constructing a brand new battery plant in North Carolina, the most recent signal the automaker is making an attempt to catch up in an trade that has embraced the swap to electrical automobiles.

The Japanese automaker additionally introduced Wednesday that it’ll construct its first U.S.-made electrical SUV at its Kentucky plant beginning in 2025. The three-row automotive will use batteries equipped by Toyota’s North Carolina plant.

At first, the information means that Toyota is strengthening its dedication to EVs. Traditionally, the corporate has lagged different automakers in saying new EV fashions, supporting hydrogen-powered automobiles as an alternative. However earlier this yr, Toyota mentioned it plans to introduce 10 new battery powered vehicleswith a aim of 1.5 million electrical automobiles bought per yr by 2026.

The North Carolina battery plant is a part of the corporate’s renewed dedication to electrification, although it’s not simply all-electric automobiles. Of the six manufacturing traces that can go reside when manufacturing begins in 2025, solely two will probably be devoted to all-electric EVs. The opposite 4 are for hybrid EVs.

Toyota has not but shared its plant’s projected gigawatt-hour capability. Prior to now, the corporate has mentioned it might produce sufficient batteries for 1.2 million automobiles a yr.

The elevated capital expenditure at a U.S. battery plant signifies that authorities incentives to spice up battery manufacturing nationally are working. The Inflation Discount Act, signed in August 2022, consists of incentives to fabricate batteries within the US. The result’s a slew of commitments from home and worldwide automakers – from Ford and Basic Motors to BMW and Hyundai – to get manufacturing up and working on US soil within the coming years.

Toyota initially introduced its dedication to construct a manufacturing facility within the US in 2021. On the time, the Japanese automaker allotted $1.8 billion for a plant close to Greensboro. Final September, Toyota tripled that funding to $3.8 billion. The newest capital injection brings Toyota’s whole stake to $5.9 billion.