Toyota sets aside $3.4 billion for American electric vehicle batteries

In 2025, Toyota will open a new North American battery manufacturing plant as part of the automaker's electrification strategy. The company made the announcement on Monday morning, stating that it will spend $3.4 billion (¥ 380 billion) on high-voltage batteries for electric vehicles in the US between now and 2030.

"This investment will help usher in more affordable electrified vehicles for US consumers, significantly reduce carbon emissions, and importantly, create even more American jobs tied to the future of mobility," said Ted Ogawa, CEO of Toyota Motor North America.

Toyota was an early leader in electrified vehicles and has sold more than 18.7 million hybrids since it introduced the first Prius in 1997. But it has been overtaken by other OEMs in the shift toward emission-free battery-electric vehicles and will only release its first modern BEV—a RAV4-sized crossover called the bZ4x—in mid-2022.

As with today's similar announcement by Stellantis, we'll have to wait some time to learn exactly where Toyota plans to build this new battery factory. Toyota isn't sharing the expected output of the battery plant yet, but it does say the joint venture with Toyota Tsusho will cost $1.3 billion between now and 2031 and that it will create 1,750 new jobs.