Toyota to establish Chinese battery and BEV plant, USA battery facility production ready
February 5, 2025
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation has announced plans to establish a new wholly owned company in Shanghai, China, for the production of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and batteries. The company announced it will sign a carbon neutrality partnership agreement with Shanghai in an effort to contribute to China’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 in fields such as hydrogen energy, automated driving technology and battery recycling or reuse.
The newly formed company in Shanghai will work to develop a new BEV under the Lexus brand, with production scheduled to begin from 2027. The initial production capacity is expected to be around 100,000 units per year and will create around 1,000 new jobs at the start-up phase.
Toyota has been working with Chinese partners such as China FAW Group Co Ltd and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd. Going forward, Toyota said it expects to continue working with all of its partners.
In-house battery production in North Carolina
In a separate announcement, the company also reported that Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina, its first in-house battery manufacturing plant outside Japan, is now ready to begin production and expects to start shipping batteries for North American electrified vehicles in April.
As Toyota’s 11th manufacturing plant in the United States, the nearly $14 billion battery facility will produce batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and BEVs.
The new battery plant is part of Toyota’s ‘best-in-town’ approach, where the company is 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.
