Toyota just announced a $1.3 billion investment in its Kentucky factory to build EVs, including its three-row electric SUV for the US market.Β
The investment supports the previously announced future battery EV assembly at Toyota Kentucky. Itβs also adding a battery pack assembly line, with batteries being supplied by Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.
Kerry Creech, the president of Toyota Kentucky, said, βTodayβs announcement reflects our commitment to vehicle electrification and further reinvesting in our US operations.β
In October 2023, Toyota announced it would invest an additional $8 billion in its North Carolina EV battery plant, which it first announced in December 2021, to make batteries for its EVs and PHEVs. Itβs expected to be ready next year.
Electrekβs Take
Toyotaβs EV investment announcement is good news, and fingers crossed, signals another serious shift from the foot-dragging company toward REAL EVs.
Despite putting big money into electrification efforts, Toyota has a history of fudging what electrification means, pushing its hybrids as EVs in marketing campaigns, and talking about hydrogen.
It says it has 26 βelectrifiedβ models, but it only sells two battery-electric vehicles, the bZ4XΒ SUV and the Lexus RZ. The other 24 are hybrid models, so thatβs a fudge.
Thatβs part of its βelectrified diversifiedβ campaign, which, as my colleague Jameson Dow wrote in November 2023, βis Toyotaβs attempt to push vehicles that are entirely powered by fossil fuels as if they are an important part of an automakerβs strategy toward carbon neutrality.β
Dow explains:
Hybrid vehicles like the (non-plug-in) Prius run entirely on gasoline. There is zero energy that enters the car system that is not put there by limited and polluting fossil fuels, of the kind that contributes toΒ millions of deaths globally per year. You cannot power a Prius on carbon-neutral energy, and a Prius is not zero-emission.
Toyotaβs strategy, which reflects its conservative corporate culture, has been wrongly steered by its belief that the market and EV technology still need to mature to meet its reliability and efficiency standards.
So, while itβs been slow to pivot toward EVs, and its greenwashing campaigns are unfair to consumers, Toyotaβs announcement today sees it putting its money where its mouthβ¦ isnβt.
This shift hopefully indicates that the Japanese automaker is shifting away from its hesitance in recognizing the growing importance of BEVs in the US market. Because if it doesnβt, its home country could suffer for it.
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