Toyota Motor Corp. will establish a production base for hybrid vehicle batteries in Thailand, aiming to start operations at the beginning of 2020, sources said Tuesday.
Toyota is rushing to enhance production capacity for electric car batteries as it aims to sell a total of 4.5 million hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle units in 2030.
The carmaker has decided to focus on battery manufacturing in Thailand as the number of electric cars there is expected to grow due to tax incentives, the sources said.
Key battery components will be procured from outside Thailand and assembled in the country with related car parts. The production base will be launched in the central province of Chachoengsao, east of Bangkok, where Toyota has a final assembly plant.
Toyota subsidiary Primearth EV Energy Co., which has plants in Japan and China, currently produces and supplies batteries to car factories across the globe.