North Carolina beat nine other states for a $1.29 billion battery plant that will soon rise in the central part of the Tar Heel State. But Toyota Motor North America's investment toward its electric vehicle future there won't be its last.
It may not even be the last in North Carolina.
Why? Because the company still has billions of dollars that it has committed to North American EV production, and the place where it will build its batteries is hundreds of miles from the nearest place in which to use them.
The plant, which Toyota says will eventually produce up to 1.2 million lithium ion battery packs annually for its lineup of North America-built hybrids, plug-in hybrids and eventually EVs, is expected to begin producing saleable battery packs in 2025. It will create about 1,750 jobs and be built on some portion of an 1,825-acre site — more than 2.85 square miles — near the town of Liberty, N.C., about 20 miles southeast of Greensboro.