LIBERTY, N.C. – Toyota will build a $1.3 billion plant in Randolph County to make batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles, officials announced Monday.
The plant, which is expected to begin production in 2025, will be Toyota’s first U.S. battery plant and marks the largest private investment in North Carolina history.
“Toyota could have chosen anywhere in the United States for this first battery place, and they chose us,” Gov. Roy Cooper said during an announcement ceremony. “We’re encouraging more electric vehicles on the road and in our state government fleet, and as all of this progress continues, the world will look at North Carolina as a hub of clean energy and clean-energy jobs.”
The state ranked first in the nation in an April 2021 analysis of rural clean energy jobs and ninth in the nation in clean energy jobs overall.
Toyota plans to hire at least 1,750 workers at the plant to produce 1.2 million batteries a year, said Christopher Reynolds, chief administrative officer of Toyota Motor Corp. of North America.
“Today also is a major step for Toyota in our quest to achieve carbon neutrality while providing mobility for all,” Reynolds said.
The company plans to invest $13.5 billion globally to boost electric vehicles, he said, noting that officials want EVs and hybrids to account for 70 percent of Toyota sales by 2030, up from 25 percent currently.
“This is only the first chapter of our story in North Carolina,” Reynolds said. “The best is yet to come.”
Toyota to receive new economic incentive
Hours before the official announcement, the state Department of Commerce’s Economic Investment Committee approved a new type of Job Development Investment Grant for Toyota. The “transitional JDIG class” grant would refund the company $79.1 million in employee withholding taxes over 20 years if it meets annual hiring and investment targets. Those targets are based on a total of 1,750 jobs created and $1.29 billion invested by 2026.
The state budget also includes $135 million to benefit this specific project – $100 million for site work and wetlands mitigation at the site and another $35 million for associated road construction and wetlands mitigation elsewhere in Randolph County.
Golden LEAF, a Rocky Mount-based economic development foundation, also has pledged $40 million to the state Department of Transportation for needed road upgrades in the area.
At a meeting of the Randolph County Board of Commissioners on Monday morning, officials described the plant – it was still referred to only as “Project Darwin” at that point – as a “transformational project” that would bring more than 3,000 jobs with an average salary of at least $62,234 – about $28,000 more than the median annual wage in Randolph County.
Commissioners heard that the employer was already considering an expansion that would bring the total project to $3 billion, with 3,875 jobs.
The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Foundation, which is developing the 1,800-acre site, recently sought approval for a grading permit, The Greensboro News & Record reported.
The state has long sought to land a big plant in the auto industry, and Toyota considered the megasite for a vehicle assembly plant four years ago before settling on Huntsville, Ala.
Auto plant for NC? Site recruiter says state is ready to be a player
Reynolds said working with state officials back then and North Carolina’s perseverance convinced Toyota officials to put the battery plant in Randolph County.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Cooper said, adding that, “We hope in the future everything that goes around the battery will be part of this as well.
Carl Warren, president and chief executive of the North Carolina Railroad Co., which owns two-thirds of the megasite, called the area “a 10-year overnight success.”
Impact of an automotive plant
North Carolina State University economist Mike Walden said the impact of the project will be immense.
“I think this will be remembered as a game-changer for North Carolina,” Walden said. “It could signal, particularly to other firms in the automotive area, that, ‘Hey, Toyota picked North Carolina. Let’s look at what’s happening in North Carolina.'”
Other than boosting a state’s reputation, he noted that auto plants are sought after for several reasons:
- They bring large numbers of jobs and payroll
- They provide good-paying employment for workers who don’t have four-year college degrees (something that is critically important in the age of globalization)
- They can have a significant in-state supply chain effect – thereby increasing the total job impact by at least 50% above those in the factory
What a Toyota manufacturing plant in North Carolina could mean for the Triad and for the state
“The landing of a firm would confirm the wisdom of North Carolina’s more pro-active strategy in competing for these large companies, by having sites ready and political agreement over an incentives package achieved,” Walden added.
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said the plant will transform the region’s economy.
“This is a project that is going to make a difference for a lifetime,” said Moore, R-Cleveland. “This is going to be employing folks for generations to come.”
The megasite is a 20- to 30-minute drive from Siler City and Pittsboro and just under an hour from Durham, meaning a workforce of nearly 1.2 million people are within an hour’s drive.
John Quinterno, of the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, told WRAL TechWire that another economic development project could be coming to the Triad.
“I did see that the technical corrections bill at the legislature … contained $107 million in money for infrastructure investments for the Piedmont Triad Airport contingent on the awarding of a high-yield JDIG [Job Development Investment Grant] award for an airplane manufacturer in Guilford County,” Quinterno said. “Not sure if that is the same thing [as the megasite] or something different. I know HondaJet already is in Greensboro, so perhaps they are planning an expansion.”
