Toyota again delays battery factory construction

According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Toyota has now delayed the timetable for constructing its planned electric vehicle battery plant in Fukuoka Prefecture for the second time. The paper cites Seitaro Hattori, governor of the southwestern Japanese prefecture, who announced the delay late last week following a meeting with Toyota President Koji Sato.The factory was initially scheduled to start operations in 2028. Toyota has not set a new target date. However, the carmaker emphasised that the plans have not been scrapped but merely postponed. The report adds that “some output there may be switched to vehicles or components.”A brief recap: Around a year and a half ago, Nikkei learned that Toyota planned to build a new electric vehicle battery plant on Kyushu, an island in southwestern Japan. The future operator was named as Toyota subsidiary Primearth EV Energy, which was founded in 1996 under a different name as a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic. Toyota had held an 80.5 per cent stake since 2010. In March 2024, Toyota acquired Panasonic’s remaining 19.5 per cent share, turning Primearth EV Energy into a wholly owned subsidiary. Following the full acquisition, the company was renamed Toyota Battery in October 2024.Even then, the Shin-Matsuyama Seaside Industrial Park in the port city of Kanda was considered the preferred site for the new battery factory. The location is about 40 kilometres from Toyota’s Miyata vehicle plant in the city of Miyawaka (also in Fukuoka Prefecture), where the Lexus UX, NX, RX and ES models are currently produced. In February 2025, Nikkei reported that Toyota had indeed purchased land worth around six billion yen (approximately 34 million euros) in the industrial park. In return, the company was required to begin construction within three years.Toyota is said to have reaffirmed its intention to honour this agreement, according to the Japanese newspaper. The site agreement for the plant was originally expected to be signed with the prefectural government in April this year. However, in March, Toyota announced that it would postpone the project until autumn due to declining demand for electric vehicles. It has now been delayed once again.asia.nikkei.com(paywall)This article was first published by Cora Werwitzke for electrive’s German edition.