Toyota to Invest Additional $2.5 Billion in New Battery Plant in the U.S.

Toyota announced Wednesday that it will invest an additional $2.5 billion in its planned battery plant in Liberty, North Carolina, to expand its production capacity.

Toyota first announced plans for the plant last December, saying at the time that it would invest $1.3 billion to build the plant and create 1,750 jobs.

Wednesday's announcement brings the total investment in the plant to $3.8 billion. An additional 350 jobs will be created.

The new plant, which will supply batteries for future plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, is scheduled to begin operations in 2025.

Toyota has not disclosed how much production capacity it expects, but in a December announcement it said it could supply batteries for up to 1.2 million hybrid vehicles annually.

"This plant will play a central role in Toyota's leadership toward a fully electrified future and help us achieve our goal of being carbon neutral in our vehicles and global operations by 2035," said Norm B. Baker, unit manufacturing and Norm Bafunno, head of unit manufacturing and engineering for Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement.

The investment in the plant is part of Toyota's $70 billion global investment in electrification planned over the next decade. Toyota projects that approximately 70% of its sales will be electrified vehicles by 2030, which includes hybrids, battery electric vehicles, and hydrogen electric vehicles. To achieve this goal, Toyota plans to offer 70 electrified vehicles by as early as 2025, 15 of which will be battery-electric; seven of the 15 will be EVs from the new BZ family, the first of which is the BZ4X compact crossover. The second is expected to be the BZ3 compact sedan.

Toyota is one of the few existing automakers planning a battery plant in the US to power future EVs. Others include Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Group, Mercedes-Benz, and Sterantis.