Plano-based Toyota North America is more than doubling its investment in the electric-vehicle battery plant planned for a previously announced North Carolina location in the Greensboro-Randolph area.
The investment adds capacity to support the production of battery-electric vehicles or BEVs. The plant will make batteries for both battery-electric and hybrid electric vehicles, known as HEVs, such as Toyota's well-known Prius. , but Bafunno told the Triad Business Journal that more investment in the site is possible and even likely.
The increase in capacity in North Carolina is still part of Toyota’s strategy of having a mix of hybrid gasoline-electric, plug-in hybrids, all-battery, and at some point fuel-cell electric vehicles for consumers to choose from. Toyota's news follows recent federal legislation meant to stimulate domestic electric-vehicle production, California’s decision to ban the sale of most new internal-combustion engines in 2035, and industry forecasts of rapid growth in electric demand.
“These battery-electric batteries are larger; they have more capacity because that's going to be the single propulsion unit for the entire vehicle,” Bafunno said. “The footprint changes. As a result, so does the process equipment design as well as the building design.”“There's a lot of slope to that land, and we've got to level it out to get the buildings in the right spaces. And that's all on schedule right now. We feel good about it.”.
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