TOYOTA INVESTS IN EVs

By Éric Descarries

Japanese automotive giant Toyota has just announced that it will invest US$1.3 billion (approx. C$1.7 billion) in its huge Georgetown, Kentucky plant, to build a battery pack assembly line. What’s more, despite the slowdown in vehicle electrification, Toyota will produce a three-row crossover there, to be named the bZ5b.

The cells for these batteries will come from the automaker’s Liberty plant in North Carolina, which is also under construction (another investment of US$13.9 billion [about $17.6 billion CDN]), bringing Toyota’s battery production lines from two to ten. Toyota’s Kentucky plant is its largest worldwide.