President Joe Biden, the self-proclaimed “car guy,” made the development of electric vehicle infrastructure a cornerstone of his economic plan.
Now, two years after his election, Biden’s push is starting to pay off as more automakers opt to manufacture their EVs in the U.S., where companies have been offered favorable tax breaks and incentives at the federal and state levels.
The latest is Japan’s Toyota Motor, which said it will produce EVs in its Kentucky factory beginning in 2025, Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday.
As part of its economic plan, the Biden administration set aside $7.5 billion to build an extensive national network of EV chargers and also made investments in EV manufacturing by providing tax credits for those purchasing certain American-made EVs and boosting local chip-making capacity to aid the EV industry.
This led to heightened interest from American consumers, who can receive as much as $7,500 in tax credit for purchasing an EV assembled in the U.S.
Toyota will use batteries it makes in North Carolina to manufacture EVs in the Kentucky plant, keeping the process in the U.S. from end to end. The company hopes to produce about 10,000 electric SUVs a month by the end of 2025, and 200,000 EVs annually in the U.S. starting in 2026, according to Nikkei.
The factory in Kentucky will aim to boost Toyota’s role in EVs, where it has been a laggard. It is the world’s top automaker, but it produced just 24,000 EVs worldwide in 2022, compared with the 1.31 million Tesla delivered.
