Toyota Motor North America is increasing its investment in the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina project announced last year by $2.5 billion to add capacity for EV battery production. The additional investment will add 350 more jobs to the development in Liberty, N.C., raising total employment at the new operation to approximately 2,100.
Toyota’s commitment to BEV manufacturing has been questioned by some observers, in particular by contrast with General Motors, Ford, and other competitors that have aggressively invested in EV battery production. Recently, Honda Motor Co. announced a $4.4-billion joint venture with lithium-ion battery manufacturer to produce EV batteries for Honda electric vehicles in North America.
The TBMNC project announced in 2021 involved an investment of $1.29 billion for hybrid-electric vehicle battery production, in Toyota and Toyota Tsusho, and an investment of $1.29 billion. Now, TBMNC’s total investment at that location is $3.8 billion.
“This marks another significant milestone for our company,” said Norm Bafunno, SVP, Unit Manufacturing and Engineering at Toyota Motor North America. “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.”
The additional investment in North Carolina is paralleled by Toyota’s plans to invest an estimated $3 billion to add BEV battery production at the Himeji (Japan) Plant of Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Co. in Japan, as well as in Toyota plants and property.
