The world’s largest automaker wants to catch up in the global EV race after falling behind rivals like Tesla and BYD. On Wednesday, Toyota announced that its $14 billion EV battery plant in North Carolina is open for business. The new facility will begin shipping batteries for Toyota’s electric vehicles in April. Meanwhile, Toyota revealed separate plans to challenge BYD and other EV leaders in China.

Toyota will begin building EV batteries in the US in April

A little over three years after Toyota revealed plans to build a new EV battery plant in North Carolina, the facility is about to open its doors.

After releasing Q3 earnings on Wednesday, the company announced that the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBMNC) plant had finished preparations. Toyota said the facility “is ready to begin production and will start shipping batteries for North American electrified vehicles in April.”

The plant will produce batteries for Toyota electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and hybrid models. Toyota invested nearly $14 billion, creating about 5,000 jobs as its new “epicenter” of North American battery production.

To give you an idea, Toyota’s new EV battery plant is about the size of 121 football fields, at over seven million square feet.

TBMNC is Toyota’s 11th manufacturing plant in the US and its first in-house battery factory outside Japan. The plant will finally begin shipping batteries in April. When fully operational, Toyota expects output to reach over 30 GWh annually.

In a separate press release on Wednesday, Toyota announced it will establish a wholly-owned company in Shanghai, China, to produce EVs and batteries for the Lexus brand.

According to Toyota, local Chinese companies “will take the lead in planning and developing BEVs” as it looks to keep pace with BYD and other domestic EV makers. The company said its goal is to “become a company that is more loved and supported by the people of China.

The new EV company is expected to begin production “after 2027,” with an annual production capacity of around 100,000 units.

Electrek’s Take

Toyota’s announcement comes as it quickly falls behind in the industry’s shift to EVs in major sales regions, including the US and China.

Last year, Toyota sold just 18,750 bZ4X electric SUVs in the US. In comparison, Japan’s Honda sold over 33,000 Prologue models in the US in 2024, and it began deliveries in March. Even the Nissan Ariya outsold the bZ4X with nearly 19,800 models sold.

The situation is even more severe in China, where Toyota is losing ground to low-cost domestic EVs. After sales fell 9% in China last year, Toyota blamed “the shift to new energy vehicles” and “intensifying price competition.”

Can Toyota turn things around? Producing more efficient EVs and batteries will be a start. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

A coalition of clean energy groups – representing over 2,000 companies and hundreds of billions in private investment – is holding more than 100 meetings today with bipartisan members of Congress to underscore the critical role of IRA clean energy tax credits.

As part of the lobbying blitz, more than 1,850 clean energy companies are also sending letters to Congress emphasizing the economic importance of clean energy tax credits and urging lawmakers to preserve these incentives. The solar industry letter can be found here, and the business leaders’ letter can be found here.

Organizations with member companies participating in the lobbying blitz include the Solar Energy Industries Association, National Hydropower Association, Oceantic Network, Climate Power, US Green Building Council, Clean Energy for America, E2, Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Impact Capital Managers, and dozens of utilities and businesses across the energy sector.

Federal energy incentives are supercharging domestic clean energy manufacturing, cutting reliance on foreign adversaries, and creating jobs for American workers. These policies are driving hundreds of billions in investments into energy projects that are keeping the grid stocked with low-cost, reliable power – just as the US sees its biggest energy demand spike since World War II.

Without federal clean energy tax credits, clean energy deployment would fall by 237 gigawatts (GW) over the next 15 years, according to Aurora Energy Research. That’s enough power to supply 36 million homes. In the last two years, 70-80% of all federal clean energy investments have been in red states, and 90% of those investments are in the manufacturing sector.

Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said, “With support from federal clean energy policies, American solar manufacturers can now produce enough modules to meet all demand for solar in the United States. It’s critical that our elected leaders understand the impact of these policies and the jobs and investments they bring to their constituents.”

“Businesses across America right now are just breaking ground or finalizing plans for hundreds of factories and projects that will manufacture the solar panels, batteries and other Made-in-America equipment and deploy the energy we need to meet the exploding demand for electricity across the economy,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of the national nonpartisan business group E2. “Now’s not the time to undermine the federal policies driving this economic boom and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it’s creating. Now’s the time for Congress to keep the investments and opportunities flowing to the folks back home, while also making America competitive again in the global marketplace.”

“Energy tax credits are helping enable more than $25 billion in American offshore wind supply chain investments and thousands of American manufacturing and shipbuilding jobs,” said Liz Burdock, president and CEO of Oceantic Network. “We must act to secure these jobs and investments in our Gulf shipyards, Midwestern steel mills, and ports along our coastlines, advance our energy security and independence, and unleash the full portfolio of American-made energy.”

Read more: Chinese solar giant Trina sells its Texas factory a week after it opens [update]

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Tesla’s sales have dropped nearly 60% in January in Germany compared to the same period last year. The same thing is happening throughout Europe.

Earlier this week, we reported that Tesla’s sales crashed throughout all European markets in January.

The two main reasons are believed to be the introduction of the new Model Y and the disapproval of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his meddling in politics, which is especially not appreciated in Europe.

At the time, we didn’t have the number from Germany, but now we do.

Reuters reported that Tesla’s sales were down 59.5% in January:

German road traffic agency KBA’s website on Wednesday showed the number of newly registered Tesla cars fell 59.5% to 1,277 in January, while the overall German market was down just 2.8% at slightly more than 207,000 vehicles during the month.

This is undoubtedly a Tesla problem because the German auto market was down just 2.8% in January, and the battery-electric market was up 53.5% during the period.

These are now Tesla’s sales in Europe in 2025 compared to 2024:

Electrek’s Take

This is pretty nuts. Obviously, Tesla will use the Model Y transition as an excuse, and there’s some truth to it. However, Tesla was transitioning the Model 3 around the same time last year, which also negatively affected 2024 sales.

Now, it’s true that Model Y is more impactful than Model 3, but I think it’s also clear that the Musk effect is at play too, it’s just impossible to tell by how much.

But I do think it will be quite disastrous, especially considering the Model Y refresh is not significant enough to convince people who are on the fence.

It feels like the negative sentiment toward Tesla is still gaining momentum rather than slowing down.

That’s not good for the EV industry. At least they have more options in Europe. It will hit even harder if we start seeing a similar impact on Tesla in the US.