Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBMNC), Toyota’s first in-house battery manufacturing plant outside Japan, is ready to begin production and will start shipping batteries for North American electrified vehicles in April.
The nearly $14 billion battery facility, Toyota’s 11th manufacturing plant in the United States, will produce batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) supported by 5,000 jobs.
The new battery plant is part of Toyota’s “best-in-town” approach―investing and producing locally, contributing to the local community and offering products tailored to local needs through a multi-pathway strategy.
To date, Toyota’s total U.S. investment stands at $49 billion, which supports more than 280,000 jobs in the industry. As a member of America’s business community, Toyota will continue to contribute to the region through job creation and investment.
In a related news, Toyota said today it will sign a comprehensive partnership agreement with the Shanghai municipal government in China regarding carbon neutrality. In addition, Toyota has decided to establish a new wholly-owned company in Jinshan District in southwest Shanghai to develop and produce BEVs and batteries.
Under this partnership with the Shanghai municipal government, Toyota hopes to contribute to the Chinese government’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 in fields such as hydrogen energy, automated driving technology, and battery recycling and reuse. To drive the initiative forward, Toyota will establish a new company based on the belief that quicker supply of products that meet customers’ needs is important in China where there is a high demand for new energy vehicles.
The newly formed company will develop a new BEV under the Lexus brand, with production scheduled to begin from 2027 onwards. The initial production capacity will be around 100,000 units per year, and approximately 1,000 new jobs are planned for the start-up phase.
Toyota has been working with partners such as China FAW Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. to bring smiles to customers in China. Going forward, Toyota will continue working together with all its partners to be a “best-in-town” company to achieve its goal of “producing happiness for all.”
