A week ago, the media shared news that Toyota wanted to make more plug-in hybrid cars available in the United States. They might even make an electric Toyota Highlander soon. Now, Automotive News tells us that Toyota is giving $1.4 billion to the Princeton, Indiana plant. This plant makes the current Highlander, Grand Highlander, Sienna minivan, and Lexus TX, which is like a fancy version of the Grand Highlander.
This money will help with three things at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana (TMMI) plant. First, they’re going to start making an electric vehicle (EV) on the same line where they currently make the Sienna and Highlander. This will start in 2026. A Toyota boss said this EV will be built on a special type of platform, not the usual one used for electric cars.
Second, the money will go towards making a place to put together the batteries for these new electric cars. These batteries will come from Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBNMC). This is a partnership with Panasonic, a company Toyota has worked with for a long time. They plan to start making these batteries in 2025.
The folks at Toyota said they won’t change the names of the cars coming out of the TMMI plant for now. And they don’t need to make the production line bigger to make the new electric car. They can already make more than 420,000 cars every year there.
But this news doesn’t mean we’ll see an electric Highlander on the roads by 2026. It does, however, mean that the new electric cars Toyota has been talking about won’t be made in the same way. If the electric Highlander does come, Toyota might also make a Lexus TZ afterward. They’ve already started the process to trademark TZ450e and TZ550e.
The third thing the $1.4 billion will do is help hire 340 new workers at TMMI. This will add to the more than 7,500 people already working there.
This plan in Indiana is different from what Toyota’s doing in Kentucky. Toyota’s making a new electric car called the bZ5X at its plant in Georgetown, Kentucky (TMMK). This will be a smaller SUV with three rows of seats. They’ll also make the batteries there, but those batteries will come from a new plant LG Energy Systems is building in Holland, Michigan. Toyota gave $3 billion to help make that plant bigger. It should start working in 2025.
