Toyota adds $2.5 billion to its investment in a North Carolina battery plant.

Toyota Motor mentioned on Wednesday that it was greater than doubling its funding in a battery plant in North Carolina as a part of a broader effort to catch as much as rivals in fielding electrical automobiles.

The automaker mentioned it will make investments an extra $2.5 billion within the plant, which is to be constructed close to Greensboro, an enlargement that might create an extra 350 jobs. It now expects to spend a complete of $3.8 billion on the manufacturing facility and to make use of 2,100 folks.

“This plant will serve a central position in Toyota’s management towards a totally electrified future and can assist us meet our aim of carbon neutrality in our automobiles and international operations by 2035,” Norm Bafunno, a senior vp of Toyota Motor North America, mentioned in an announcement.

Toyota pioneered hybrid automobiles that use an electrical motor and a gasoline engine to cut back gas consumption, however has been slower than many automakers in committing to a full transition to electrical automobiles and vehicles.

Basic Motors has simply began manufacturing at a battery plant in Ohio, and has two others below building. Ford Motor is constructing two battery crops in Kentucky and one in Tennessee, and Stellantis is finding one in Indiana.

The lately permitted Inflation Discount Act has elevated the inducement for such crops by tying subsidies for E.V. purchases to the quantity of a automobile’s battery that’s inbuilt North America.

Toyota introduced the plan to construct the North Carolina battery plant in December, saying it will make investments $1.29 billion and make use of 1,750 folks.

In its assertion on Wednesday, Toyota mentioned it was spending $70 billion globally on its electrification technique, together with $5.6 billion on battery manufacturing.