Toyota stated on Tuesday it might make investments $1.3 billion at its Kentucky facility for electrification efforts, together with meeting of a brand new, three-row battery electrical SUV for the U.S. market.
The venture brings the plant’s complete funding to almost $10 billion.
The transfer comes at a time when legacy automakers comparable to Ford have pulled again from their electrical car (EV) ambitions to focus extra on higher-margin hybrid and gasoline-powered fashions.
The funding will help the Japanese automaker’s beforehand introduced battery electrical car meeting in Kentucky.
It additionally provides a battery pack meeting line to the ability, with batteries being equipped by Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.
“We’re grateful that they (Toyota) proceed to put money into our commonwealth,” stated Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
The Kentucky plant, a key hub for the Japanese automaker, gives employment to about 9,400 employees and assembles as many as 550,000 automobiles a yr, together with its widespread Camry sedan.
Toyota additionally raised its full-year working revenue forecast by almost 9% earlier within the day, after its third-quarter earnings raced previous analysts’ estimates because of a weaker yen and robust gross sales of high-margin vehicles and hybrid automobiles.