Texas Being Eyed As Toyota Prepares To Build $1.29B Electric Battery Plant
DETROIT (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Toyota is preparing to build a new $1.29 billion factory to manufacture batteries for gas-electric hybrid and fully electric vehicles and some believe Texas is in the running for the campus.
The exact plant location wasn't announced, but the company said it eventually will employ 1,750 people and start making batteries in 2025, gradually expanding through 2031.
The plant is part of $3.4 billion that Toyota plans to spend in the U.S. on automotive batteries during the next decade. It didn't detail where the remaining $2.1 billion would be spent, but part of that likely will go for another battery factory.
It comes amid a flurry of global announcements about shoring up production of batteries for electric vehicles. Most automakers are working to transition away from internal combustion engines to zero emission battery vehicles.
Ford, General Motors and Toyota have announced large investments in U.S. battery factories. GM plans to build battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee, while Ford has plans for plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.
Toyota will form a new company to run its new U.S. battery plant with Toyota Tsusho, a subsidiary that now makes an array of parts for the automaker. The company also will help Toyota expand its U.S. supply chain, as well as increase its knowledge of lithium-ion auto batteries, Toyota said Monday.
The new plant would likely be near one of the company's U.S. assembly plants in Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana or Alabama. The Japanese automaker's U.S. headquarters is in Plano.
Toyota plans to sell 2 million zero emission hydrogen and battery electric vehicles worldwide per year by 2030. In the U.S., Toyota plans to sell 1.5 million to 1.8 million vehicles by 2030 in the U.S. that are at least partially electrified.
Toyota says vehicles that operate at least partially on electricity now account for about a quarter of its U.S. sales, and it plans for that to rise to nearly 70% by 2030.
The company says it will have 15 battery electric vehicles for sale globally by 2025.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
