Toyota to build $1.3B battery plant in U.S.
RALEIGH, N.C. » Toyota announced on Monday that it plans to build a $1.3 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Greensboro, North Carolina, that will employ at least 1,750 people and help meet the auto giant’s growing goals of electric vehicle sales this decade.
Company leaders joint Gov. Roy Cooper and other elected and economic-development officials gathered to unveil the project on hundreds of acres at the Greensboro-randolph Megasite in Liberty, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Raleigh.
Initially, Toyota will or could receive well over $430 million in cash incentives, tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades from the state of North Carolina and local governments if it meets job creation and investment goals, according to officials and documents.
The Japanese automaker said the plant would start making batteries in 2025.
The announcement marks a massive accomplishment for the Greensboro-area economy, which is still looking for replacement jobs after the region’s generations-old textile industry shriveled in the 1990s and 2000s.
Local leaders had been working for several years to land such a big company at the site. North Carolina lost out to Alabama for a joint Toyota-mazda automobile manufacturing plant about four years ago.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Cooper said during the announcement at the proposed site, saying the production will help North Carolina meet its goal as a clean-energy leader. “We hope in the future everything that goes around the battery will be part of this as well.”
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.
Toyota will form a new company to run the new 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.