Toyota said Wednesday it will triple its planned investment for its first U.S. battery factory due to rising consumer demand for electric vehicles.
The automaker now plans to spend $3.8 billion, up from the initial $1.3 billion announced, to build a plant near Greensboro, North Carolina. Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina is expected to begin producing batteries for hybrid and battery-electric vehicles in 2025.
The additional funding brings Toyota’s global investment to $5.6 billion as it aims to go carbon-neutral by 2035.
Automakers have staged a land grab across the country this month, announcing multi-billion battery projects slated to begin bearing fruit by the middle of the decade. The cadence of declarations has accelerated since Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides incentives and tax credits for EV manufacturers.
On Monday, Honda announced a $4.4 billion joint venture with LG Energy Solutions to make batteries for its North American EVs. The company didn’t say where the factory will be located, but analysts think it will be near Honda’s North American headquarters in Ohio or a state such as Alabama offering attractive incentives to locate there.
Panasonic, which announced plans in July to build a $4 billion battery plant in Kansas that will manufacture and supply lithium-ion batteries to EV makers, said last week that it’s eyeing Oklahoma as a site for a second factory.
