Toyota to Invest 730 B. Yen to Raise EV Battery Production

Nagoya, Aug. 31 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> said Wednesday that it will invest up to 730 billion yen to boost production of batteries for electric vehicles in Japan and the United States. Toyota aims to put new production facilities into operation between 2024 and 2026. Japanese automakers, which have been lagging in the area of electric vehicles, are stepping up efforts to secure batteries for such cars. On Monday, Honda Motor Co. <7267> announced a 4.4-billion-dollar plan with a South Korean battery maker to build a new lithium-ion battery plant in the United States. Last December, Toyota made public a target of selling 3.5 million units of electric vehicles globally in 2030. The latest announcement is part of the company's plans to invest 2 trillion yen in batteries for vehicles by the year. According to Wednesday's announcement, around 400 billion yen will be spent to expand production facilities at Toyota plants and property and at the Himeji plant of Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc., a joint venture with Panasonic Corp. In the United States, the automaker will spend 2.5 billion dollars to boost the production capacity at a battery plant in the state of North Carolina. The newly announced investments will increase Toyota's battery production capacity by up to 40 gigawatt-hours. While the automaker did not disclose the expected total production capacity after the expansion, its capacity stood at 6 gigawatt-hours as of May last year. <6752> END