Toyota announces $10bn US investment

TOKYO: Japanese auto giant Toyota said Thursday it will invest $10 billion in the United States, confirming earlier comments from President Donald Trump on a visit to Asia.

Trump created some confusion by saying in October that Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda had told him in Tokyo about the investment plan.

“They are going to spend $10 billion. And build new car plants. And they are going to build them in numerous states,” Trump said.

Toyota played down the comments, with finance chief Kenta Kon saying last week that it was “difficult to confirm the accuracy of the $10 billion figure”.

But on Thursday Toyota announced an “additional investment” of $10 billion over the next five years.

“This will bring the company’s total US investment to nearly $60 billion since beginning operations in the US nearly 70 years ago,” a statement said.

The announcement coincided with the opening of its first US factory making lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid cars.

The North Carolina plant is “Toyota’s eleventh manufacturing facility in the US, representing an investment of nearly $14 billion and the creation of up to 5,100 new jobs,” it said.

In exchange for lowering tariffs to 15 percent from a threatened 25 percent – 27.5 percent for Japanese cars – Tokyo agreed in July to invest $550 billion in the US economy.

Japanese automakers are also being pressured by the Trump administration to export vehicles made in their US plants to Japan.

Toyota has stated that it is ready to do so if conditions are met.

“Efforts are underway to harmonise Japanese certification standards with those of the United States. If these preparations are successful, we would be willing to consider it,” said Hiroyuki Ueda, Toyota’s head of public affairs, at the Tokyo Mobility Show.

Toyota imported about half of the vehicles it sold in the US last year, mostly from Canada and Mexico but also including some 281,000 vehicles made in Japan, Bloomberg News reported.

Last week Toyota hiked its operating income and net profit forecasts for the current fiscal year “despite” the impact of US tariffs.

Toyota shares were down 0.1 percent at 3,187.0 yen at the break in Tokyo on Thursday.