The company will use this investment to build batteries and a three-row electric SUV.
We don’t know yet if this new electric SUV will also be offered by Subaru.
The Kentucky assembly plant is Toyota’s largest such facility globally.
Toyota has announced a new investment into its electrification efforts in North America, now aimed at its assembly plant in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Indeed, the automaker has pledged to spend $1.3 billion on “future electrification efforts”, a portion of which will be used to set up a new battery pack assembly line at what is Toyota’s largest manufacturing facility globally.
The cells for these batteries will be produced at the manufacturer’s new battery plant which is currently being built in Liberty, North Carolina, the result of a $13.9 billion investment.
In addition, Toyota added another $8 billion to the North Carolina plant back in October to increase the number of production lines from 2 to 10, even before the first battery cells have been made onsite.
Another part of the $1.3 billion investment in the Kentucky plant could be used for the production of an upcoming three-row electric SUV that was announced in May of last year.
At the moment, we still don’t know if Subaru will market a rebadged version of this future model like it does with the current bZ4X / Solterra, but if it does, we can expect it to be manufactured by Toyota alongside its own version, which is unofficially called bZ5X given its expected relation to the bZ4X in terms of size and price.
Other projects could also benefit from the latest investment, as Toyota was not very specific in its announcement.
Currently, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky employs 9,400 workers and builds the Camry, Camry Hybrid, RAV4 Hybrid, and the Lexus ES, whose production will be moved entirely to Japan in 2025. In addition, the Georgetown facility also manufactures four and six-cylinder engines for use in Toyota and Lexus models.
Source: Automotive News
