Toyota More Than Doubles Investment In North Carolina Battery Plant

Toyota’s investing some serious dough in its electrification efforts.

Announced today, August 31, Toyota plans to invest a whopping $2.5 billion more, into a new battery manufacturing plant in Liberty, North Carolina. This North Carolina plant is Toyotas’ latest North American endeavor; it’s expected to offer 2,100 jobs, up 350 from its initial plan of 1,750 jobs. This is almost double Toyota’s initial investment of $1.3 billion, bringing the total investment in this plant to $3.8 billion. This is a mere fraction of Toyota’s $70 billion investment in electrification.

Dubbed Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBMNC), this plant will primarily produce batteries for future Toyota EVs and Hybrids. Production is planned to start in 2025. “this plant will serve a central role in Toyota’s leadership toward a fully electrified future and will help us meet our goal of carbon neutrality in our vehicles and global operations by 2035,” said Norm Bafunno, senior vice president, Unit Manufacturing and Engineering at Toyota Motor North America.

Like, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, and a plethora of other OEMs, this battery manufacturing plant dovetails into the Inflation Reduction Act, which is significantly biased toward North American-made EVs and North American-made EV batteries. A North American plant would set Toyota up to be competitive in the EV field. Currently, its lone full EV offering, the BZ4X isn’t eligible for any EV plug-in tax credit subsidies.

It’s unclear what models these forthcoming batteries will make their way into, but this battery manufacturing plant does buck the feeling that Toyota is more antagonistic toward EV adoption than other manufacturers.

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