While Ford, General Motors and other makers are scaling back on their EV and battery production plans, Toyota revealed Tuesday it’s doing just the opposite by investing an additional $8 billion into its Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina facility.
With its latest $8 billion expansion, Toyota is investing more than $13 billion in its battery center in North Carolina.
Toyota’s bound and determined to make sure it has enough batteries for its electric vehicles and hybrids, revealing Tuesday plans to invest an additional $8 billion into its battery manufacturing facility in North Carolina.
The new investment is expected to create an additional 3,000 jobs at Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina, which was previously announced in 2021 with a $1.9 billion investment.
Toyota officials said when its complete, the battery facility will employ more than 5,000 people.
The Japanese automaker has expanded the scope and size of the campus twice, bringing the total projected investment to $13.9 billion with an expected 5,000 jobs created.
This investment adds capacity to support battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. An additional eight BEV/PHEV battery production lines will be added to the two previously announced, for a total of 10 battery lines.
Production will be increased in a phased approach, with line launches planned through 2030 to reach a total production of more than 30GWh annually.
“Today’s announcement reinforces Toyota’s commitment to electrification and carbon reduction, bringing jobs and future economic growth to the region,” said Sean Suggs, president of Toyota North Carolina. “We are excited to see the continued energy and support of this innovative manufacturing facility.”
Bucking the trend
Toyota’s expansion scope of work comes as competitors like General Motors and Ford are slowing their push to develop and produce batteries in the U.S.
General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra told investors the company was slowing the cadence of its affordable EV development to focus on profitability.
During the now-concluded negotiations with the UAW, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company was “pausing” construction on its new $3.5 billion battery plant in western Michigan. Work continued on the site, but it was mostly to land prep the site for construction of the building.
GM also announced plans to focus more on profitability than hustling its long-awaited series of EVs to market. The company is delaying production of some of its new battery-electric vehicles, this time announcing that production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickups won’t start rolling out of the suburban Detroit Orion Assembly Plant until late 2025.
In a statement, the automaker said it is intended “to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand.” The automaker also noted that it is making engineering revisions that should help lower costs and “increase the profitability of our products.”
This marks the latest delay in GM’s ambitious EV program which was intended to bring more than two dozen all-electric models to market by 2025.
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