Toyota says it plans to invest $912 million in upgrades to manufacturing plants in five U.S. states, as part of a larger initiative to spend $10 billion on U.S. expansion efforts over the next five years. 

The $912 million investment announced on November 18 will largely go toward boosting Toyota's hybrid vehicle production. Roughly $453 million of that money will go toward increasing output of four-cylinder hybrid engines at a plant in Buffalo, West Virginia, while $204.4 million will go toward hybrid engine production in Georgetown, Kentucky, and $125 million will be used to expand Corolla production in Blue Springs, Mississippi. The remaining funds will be split between upgrades to hybrid vehicle engine block production in Tennessee, and a new cylinder head production line for hybrid vehicles at a Missouri facility.

“Toyota’s philosophy is to build where we sell, and by adding more American jobs and investing across our U.S. footprint, we continue to stay true to that philosophy," said Toyota senior vice-president of manufacturing operations Kevin Voelkel.

On November 12, the carmaker also started production at a new $13.9 billion battery plant in North Carolina. The facility is Toyota's first ever in-house battery plant not based in Japan, and was first announced in December 2021 following a push from the Biden administration to bring more hybrid and EV battery production to the U.S. 

Toyota estimates that around half of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. are assembled domestically, while 76% are assembled in North America.