Toyota Motor North America announced that it will invest $1. 3 billion in its production facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, to produce electric cars and batteries.
The investment will be used to bring together a new style of electric SUV for the U. S. market and a battery assembly line for parts manufactured at Toyota’s battery plant in Greensboro, North Carolina. The new EV style will have 3 rows of seats.
Toyota Kentucky is the automaker’s largest production facility, with approximately 9,400 employees. Opened in 1988, it is the first U. S. auto plant. The U. S. government began manufacturing hybrid cars, starting in 2006. It currently has a production capacity of up to 550,000 cars per year, adding the Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, Camry, Camry Hybrid and Lexus ES 350 styles. The next-generation Camry, the 2025 styling that will go into production this spring, will only be available in hybrid form.
“Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to vehicle electrification and our continued reinvestment in our U. S. operations,” Kerry Creech, president of Toyota Kentucky, said in a statement.
Toyota has invested about $10 billion in its Kentucky operations since 2021. Recently, the automaker has two EV models on the U. S. market: the Toyota bZ4X and the Lexus RZ 4503, both made in Japan.
Toyota has thirteen production plants in the U. S. and one plant in a joint venture with Mazda in Alabama.