Toyota is clearly not resting on its hybrid this fall. While the company is busy adjusting its 2026 model year lineup, offering pricing and details on everything from the Land Cruiser to the Corolla GR and the Crown Signia, its marketing arm just had a field day at the SEMA Show 2025 in Las Vegas.
The highlights were delightfully chaotic. The resurrection of the long-dead Scion brand with the Scion 01 hybrid concept, the introduction of a hydrogen-powered Tacoma H2-Overlander, a fully electric bZ Time Attack racer, and, somehow, an aggressive four-door Camry GT-S.
But the real power play is happening in Liberty, North Carolina, where Toyota has officially commenced production at its massive, $13.9 billion battery manufacturing facility. This new factory is a sprawling, 1,850-acre mega-site, making it the eleventh Toyota plant in the US and its only dedicated battery plant outside of Japan. It’s the new central hub for developing and producing lithium-ion battery packs for the company’s burgeoning family of electrified models, including hybrids, PHEVs, and pure BEVs. The site will house at least 14 production lines and crank out up to 30 GWh annually at full capacity.
This colossal investment, which also comes with the promise of creating up to 5,100 new American jobs, underscores Toyota’s commitment to its “multi-path approach to global vehicle electrification”. The company is currently shipping HEV modules to its Kentucky and Alabama assembly plants and has already announced the facility will supply battery packs for the Camry HEV, Corolla Cross HEV, RAV4 HEV, and an unannounced all-electric BEV. Possibly “the first of its kind for Toyota to be built in the US”.
Toyota simultaneously announced an additional investment of up to $10 billion over the next five years for “future mobility efforts”, bringing their total US investment since their inception to nearly $60 billion. This financial commitment is also accompanied by a $2.7 million funding injection from the Toyota USA Foundation into local schools, supporting the national STEM education initiative, Driving Possibilities. The full operation, complete with additional production lines, will be fully functional by 2030.
