Toyota plans to build $1.3 billion US battery plant, employ 1,750

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to invest $3.4 billion in the U.S. through 2030 to produce its own automotive batteries, including building a $1.3 billion battery plant that will employ 1,750 U.S. workers, the automaker announced Monday.

Those lithium-ion batteries will power Toyota’s hybrids and electric vehicles. The company did not say where it will build the facility, but said it aims to start production there by 2025.

“This investment will help usher in more affordable electrified vehicles for U.S. consumers, significantly reduce carbon emissions, and importantly, create even more American jobs tied to the future of mobility,” Ted Ogawa, chief executive officer of Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement. 

Toyota is the latest automaker to announce plans to manufacture batteries as the industry races to transition into electric vehicles. Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, separately announced Monday that it will team up with LG Corp. to build its own battery plant in the U.S. 

Toyota, which had been critical of governments’ push to transition to electric vehicles, has also acknowledged that it must invest in battery-powered cars to remain competitive. The company said Monday that it expects its hybrids and electric vehicles to make up 70 percent of its U.S. sales by 2030, up from 25 percent currently.

The announcement comes as foreign-owned automakers, including Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen, lobby Democratic lawmakers to remove a provision in the $3.5 trillion social spending package that would provide an additional tax credit for electric cars built by unionized U.S. workers.

Automakers that don’t apply for the expanded tax credit, including Tesla, argue that the provision would hurt electric vehicle adoption.