Big North Carolina factory likely to be Toyota battery plant

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina government officials have scheduled a Monday afternoon news conference to announce a major economic development project that likely will be construction of a Toyota electric vehicle battery factory that will employ 1,750 people.

Officials from the state and an unidentified company are scheduled to be at the event. Officials said the event will welcome a new industry to an 1,800-acre plot called the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Greensboro. The site is along a four-lane highway with water, sewer and railroad infrastructure already available.

The Randolph County commission has scheduled a special meeting early Monday to consider an incentives package for the project, and a state economic panel that must approve cash awards to companies seeking to build in North Carolina meets after that.

In October, Toyota announced that it plan to build a new $1.29 billion U.S. factory to make batteries for hybrid and fully electric vehicles. The location was to be announced later in the year. The automaker said the plant would start making batteries in 2025, gradually expanding through 2031.

State legislators and the office of Gov. Roy Cooper either wouldn't comment or did not return messages from The Associated Press.

The plant is part of $3.4 billion that Toyota plans to spend in the U.S. on automotive batteries during the next decade. It didn’t detail where the remaining $2.1 billion would be spent, but part of that likely will go for another battery factory.

Toyota will form a new company to run the new plant with Toyota Tsusho, a subsidiary that now makes an array of parts for the automaker. The company also will help Toyota expand its U.S. supply chain, as well as increase its knowledge of lithium-ion auto...