Toyota to invest $3.4bn in US automotive batteries up to 2030

18 October 2021 - 14:08 By Reuters
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Toyota plans to invest billions in automotive battery development and production in the US.
Toyota plans to invest billions in automotive battery development and production in the US.
Image: Harold Cunningham/Getty Images

Toyota Motor Corp's North American unit said on Monday it will invest about $3.4bn (roughly R50,126,030,000) in US automotive battery development and production in the US until the end of the decade.

The world's largest automaker by volume also said it plans to establish a new company and build a new US automotive battery plant together with Toyota Tsusho, the automaker's metals trading arm and a unit of the Toyota Group.

The new plant, which includes a planned $1.29bn (roughly R19,018,405,500) Toyota investment through 2031, aims to start production in 2025 and is expected to create 1,750 new US jobs.

The funds are part of the $13.5bn it announced in September it planned to spend globally by 2030 to develop batteries and its battery supply system. The largest Japanese automaker said in September it aimed to slash costs of its batteries by 30% or more by working on materials used and the way the cells are structured.

Toyota said the new company will initially focus on producing batteries for hybrid vehicles. Toyota said it will later disclose production capacity, the new company's business structure and the plant site.

Toyota North America CEO Ted Ogawa said the investment “will help usher in more affordable electrified vehicles for US consumers”.

Automakers around the world are investing billions of dollars to ramp up battery and electric vehicle production as they face increasingly stringent environmental regulations.

Toyota has mounted a lobbying campaign to try to convince US lawmakers not to include an additional $4,500 (roughly R66,361) tax incentive for union-made electric vehicles.

In August, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order setting a target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles.

Detroit's Big Three automakers said in August they aspire “to achieve sales of 40-50% of annual US volumes of electric vehicles by 2030".

Toyota said last month it “unreservedly signed up to meet the challenge of making half of the vehicles we sell electric” by 2030.

Biden’s 50% goal and the automakers’ 2030 goals includes battery electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles that also have a petrol-engine. 


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