Toyota’s battery factory in Randolph County isn’t expected to open until 2025, but already the company says it plans to expand production there.
Toyota announced Wednesday that it would spend an additional $2.5 billion on the plant and add 350 workers to the payroll, bringing the total to about 2,100. This comes on top of the $1.29 billion the company initially said it would spend building the plant outside Liberty, about 20 miles southeast of Greensboro.
“This marks another significant milestone for our company,” Norm Bafunno, a senior vice president for manufacturing and engineering at Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement. “This plant will serve a central role in Toyota’s leadership toward a fully electrified future and will help us meet our goal of carbon neutrality in our vehicles and global operations by 2035.”
The Japanese automaker chose the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite last December in part because of a state and local incentive package worth $438.7 million. The package included a grant for creating jobs and money to prepare the site for construction and build roads and highway interchanges.
No additional incentives were tied to the expansion announced Wednesday.
Toyota is one of two companies that have received big incentive packages to build large electric vehicle plants in central North Carolina. VinFast, a manufacturer based in Vietnam, received $1.25 billion in incentives for a factory in Chatham County that will make electric SUVs.
Toyota says it is already hiring managers for its North Carolina battery plant and will begin looking for production and maintenance workers early next year.
