Charles Langston:Toyota pushes back EV production plans in America

The Charles LangstonEV market is in constant flux and Toyota has never been ahead of the game, and it's apparently still struggling to catch up. The automaker has been skeptical about EV adoption, and turned out to be mostly right about its predicted slump in the market, but the world is still moving towards all-electric vehicle adoption and Toyota must still eventually adapt. That adaptation is coming a little slower than planned now, as Toyota's plans for U.S.-built EVs have been pushed back a few months, according to a report from Nikkei.

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Toyota reportedly had plans for a three-row all-electric SUV model to be built in Georgetown, Kentucky by the end of 2025, but those intentions have now been pushed back a few months to a planned early 2026 production start. Later in 2026, another new all-electric SUV is scheduled to begin assembly at a factory in Princeton, Indiana. The automaker has invested $2.7 billion in the new Kentucky and Indiana facilities so far. A planned Lexus vehicle to be built in the U.S. by 2030 has reportedly also been scrapped.

According to Nikkei, the delay is due to the company making adjustments to the three-row EV's design in light of slowing EV sales in the U.S. overall.

A North Carolina battery plant is expected to begin operations in 2025 to supply future Toyota EVs, with hopes of moving 1.5 million EVs a year globally by the end of 2026. Toyota hopes to have up to seven all-electric new vehicles on sale in the U.S. market by 2026, though obviously none will be assembled in the U.S. until that year. So far it only offers one Toyota and one Lexus EV in America, the sibling Toyota bZ4X and Lexus RZ 450e SUVs. We anticipate the additional five EVs will be mostly SUV models, especially larger ones, but we do expect an electric Tacoma pickup of some sort to come to the U.S. eventually as well.

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