Some 1,700 transportation jobs are coming to the Piedmont courtesy of Toyota. The announcement was made at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, the future manufacturing home for electric vehicle and hybrid car batteries.
On the 1,800-acre site roughly 20-minutes southeast of Greensboro, dozens of state and local government representatives, company leaders and other officials gathered outdoors to unveil the new project: a $1.3 billion investment for Toyota's first automobile battery manufacturing plant in the U.S.
Governor Roy Cooper calls the move a new chapter in North Carolina's economic development as it moves toward limiting carbon emissions.
“We're increasing our infrastructure charge stations,” says Cooper. “We're bringing more electric buses online and we're encouraging more electric vehicles on the road and in our state government fleet. And as all of this progress continues the world will look at North Carolina as a hub of clean energy and clean energy jobs.”
The region's well-trained workforce was a major driver of the decision to locate here with average salaries expected to exceed $60,000. The first batteries produced at Toyota Battery North Carolina are slated for 2025.
The company plans to sell two million zero-emission hydrogen and battery electric vehicles annually worldwide by 2030.