Toyota has opened its first in-house automotive battery plant outside of Japan in North Carolina, United States of America.
In a press release on 5 February, the auto giant said the plant will produce batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) supported by 5,000 jobs.
The plant is also expected to start shipping batteries for North American electrified vehicles in April.
Expanding battery investment
Named Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBMNC), the $14 billion battery facility is Toyota’s 11th manufacturing plant in the United States.
It is part of Toyota’s “best-in-town” approach, which focuses on investing and producing locally to give back to the host community and make products tailored to their needs through a multi pathway approach.
With this new battery plant, Toyota’s investment in the U.S is at $49 billion and supports more than 280,000 jobs.
Similarly, the auto giant is establishing a new wholly-owned company in Jinshan District in southwest Shanghai to develop and produce BEVs and batteries via a partnership with the Shanghai municipal government in China regarding carbon neutrality.
This project will contribute to the Chinese government’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 in fields such as hydrogen energy, automated driving technology, and battery recycling and reuse.
The new company will produce a new Lexus BEV, and the production is expected to commence in 2027 with 100,000 units per year initially and expected to create at least 1,000 new jobs.
The race for electric vehicles
Toyota has been working on electric vehicles before now, only it had not established a battery plant outside of Japan until now.
Just last year, the company partnered with Suzuki to start manufacturing BEV SUV models, which Suzuki will start producing this year.
The company also recently entered a technology partnership with Suzuki and Daihatsu to build mini-comercial BEVs this year.
All these contribute to Toyota attaining its goal of carbon neutrality as it gradually phases out gasoline vehicles.
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