Toyota Motor and Honda Motor are the latest automakers to plan billions of dollars in electric vehicle-related investments in North America as experts predict EV demand to spike.
Honda said Thursday it would invest CAD$15 billion ($11 billion) in Canadian manufacturing to strengthen its EV supply chain, plus prepare for future demand across the North American continent. The Japanese automaker has started evaluating plans to build an electric car plant and an electric battery plant in Alliston, Ontario, along with two other facilities.
Honda plans to build a plant making components for lithium-ion batteries, which power electric cars, through a joint venture with South Korea’s Posco Future M. It also wants to make a lithium-ion battery separator plant with Asahi Kasei, a Japanese chemical company.
Once the assembly plant is active in 2028, it will make up to 240,000 vehicles annually and create more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs, according to Honda. “Honda is making progress in our global initiatives toward the realization of our 2050 carbon neutrality goal,” CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in a statement. “We will strengthen our EV supply system and capability with an eye toward a future increase in EV demand in North America.”
Honda has also committed at least $700 million toward starting EV production in Ohio, with plans to start making cars in late 2025. It’s also launched a joint venture battery plant with LG Energy Solution in the Buckeye State, with an expected investment of $4.4 billion.
And Toyota — despite its reluctance to make EVs over hybrid vehicles — is undertaking a $1.4 billion investment to prepare its factory in Princeton, Indiana, to make a new three-row battery electric SUV. Toyota has poured more than $8 billion into the Indiana factory so far.
The latest investment will go toward providing infrastructure to build the new car and add a new battery pack assembly line supplied with lithium-ion batteries from Toyota’s in-progress manufacturing plant in North Carolina. The $13.9 billion facility is set to begin production in 2025.
In February, the company said it would invest $1.3 billion into its Georgetown, Kentucky, facility to make a different new three-row battery electric SUV. Like the Indiana facility, it will also rely on batteries made in North Carolina.
The pair of Japanese automakers are looking to capitalize on interest in EVs and meet their carbon neutrality goals, which prioritizes cleaner cars that release less emissions. Several other automakers, including Hyundai Motor Co, have announced similar plans. By 2035, every other car sold around the world is set to be electric, according to the International Energy Agency.