As a way of gaining an even greater foothold in the booming electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing sector, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation announced that it is increasing its investment in a lithium-ion battery production plant in the United States.
Toyota US executives released a statement on June 1st that the company would invest an additional $2.1 billion into its battery plant in North Carolina. This brings the Japanese carmaker’s total investment into its US initiatives to around $5.9 billion.
The North Carolina facility is expected to become Toyota US’ hub for the development of EV battery technologies, as well as the production of such items. The plant will have six production lines, two of which are specifically for battery-powered electric vehicles, and four for hybrid EVs.
Getting Into the SUV Scene
In the same statement, the company also announced that the first of its electric battery-powered sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to be made in the US would be produced by its plant in Kentucky from 2025 onwards.
Toyota hopes to introduce at least ten new battery-powered EV models in order to meet sales targets of around 1.5 million EVs per annum come 2026.
These new SUVs will be characterized by three rows of seats for maximum passenger capacity and will be powered by batteries produced at Toyota’s North Carolina plant.