(Reuters) -Toyota Motor said on Tuesday it would invest $8 billion more and add about 3,000 jobs at its electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plant in North Carolina, boosting the Japanese automaker’s push to electrify its lineup.
The company, which plans to have electrified options for its models available by 2025, said the latest move will bring its total investment in the plant to about $13.9 billion and jobs to more than 5,000.
Legacy automakers such as Ford Motor and General Motors have been racing to ramp-up their EV output and close the gap with market leader Tesla.
Toyota’s North Carolina facility is set to begin operations in 2025 and will be the company’s first automotive battery plant globally.
It will have six battery production lines, four supporting hybrid vehicles such as the Prius, and two additional lines to support battery electric vehicles.
(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Devika Syamnath)
