Dive Brief:
- Automaker giant Toyota plans to invest an additional estimated $8 billion toward its EV battery manufacturing plant in Liberty, North Carolina, the company announced on Tuesday.
- The latest investment will create about 3,000 more jobs and increase capacity to support Toyota’s EV models by adding eight more production lines.
- The battery production lines will launch in phases through 2030 and reach a total of 30-gigawatt hours a year, the company said in the release. Production is expected to begin in 2025.
Dive Insight:
The latest contribution brings a total investment of $13.9 billion and over 5,000 jobs, the automaker said in the release.
“Today’s announcement reinforces Toyota’s commitment to electrification and carbon reduction, bringing jobs and future economic growth to the region,” Sean Suggs, president of Toyota North Carolina, said in a statement.
Toyota first announced it was building an EV battery plant in North Carolina on December 6, 2021, with the investment starting approximately at $1.3 billion.
Since then, Toyota gradually increased its investment:
- Last year, the Japan-based automaker broke ground and expanded its plans, investing $2.5 billion more in the facility.
- As the number of jobs increased, Toyota pledged $1 million to boost the state’s workforce and expose students to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics education.
- In May 2023, Toyota added another $2.1 billion to the Liberty plant, which will support the automaker’s battery electric SUV at its assembly plant in Kentucky starting in 2025.
The EV battery investments are part of Toyota’s goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050. The company also has a goal to make all of its manufacturing facilities carbon-neutral by 2035 as well as reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from operations by a minimum of 68%.
