Toyota to build EV battery plant for Lexus cars

TOKYO, July 28 (Reuters): Japan's Toyota Motor plans to build a battery plant for electric vehicles in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka and supply its batteries to a factory that makes luxury Lexus brand cars, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.
The world's top-selling automaker would seek to make the island of Kyushu where Fukuoka is located a central part of its supply chain for battery-powered vehicles and an export base for Asia, the newspaper said.
A Toyota spokesperson said the company was aware of the report, but that it was not something it had announced. Toyota has been taking various initiatives to strengthen its EV battery production capacity, the spokesperson added.
Toyota makes Lexus vehicles at the Miyata plant of its subsidiary Toyota Motor Kyushu.
The automaker has previously said it will introduce EVs employing next-generation batteries globally from 2026.
The company is targeting sales of 3.5 million EVs annually by 2030, with just under half of those made by the BEV Factory unit. It sold 104,000 EVs in 2023.