York Township — Toyota Motor Corp. is investing nearly $50 million to construct a new battery laboratory at its North American research and developments headquarters outside of Ann Arbor.
The lab that is expected to open in 2025 will evaluate batteries for electrified vehicles in North America to meet the region’s requirements for performance, quality and durability. It marks another sign of Michigan’s continued strengths in the automotive sector and engineering even in the transition to EVs and after Toyota has had its campus in the state for more than 50 years.
The state of Michigan is expected to support the $47.7 million project with $1.59 million in incentives to retain jobs as traditional powertrain engineers transition to work on EVs. It could create less than 100 jobs.
“All of these investments,” Chris Reynolds, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Toyota North America, said during a news conference, “are helping to make our electrified vehicles more accessible and affordable for all customers. These investments in affordable, accessible EVs will allow a greater number of people to actively help reduce carbon emissions.”
The Toyota USA Foundation also announced a nearly $10 million grant through its $110 million Driving Possibilities program to benefit Lincoln Consolidated and Ypsilanti Community Schools for classroom and hands-on education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, with the support of Eastern Michigan University.
Toyota’s new battery lab will work with the Japanese automaker’s battery manufacturing site in North Carolina and at a plant in Kentucky where it will build a new three-row all-electric SUV. Over the last two years, the company has invested more than $8 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations.
Lab engineers will explore different battery configurations for future products. Additionally, employees will evaluate the use of Level 2 and Level 3 DC fast chargers and other power connections. The investment includes updating dynamometers at research and development campuses in York Township and Ann Arbor to evaluate full EVs. There could be opportunity for future expansion of the lab’s capabilities, too.
“These investment will help ensure that the jobs in this technology are here to stay,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said. “We will not cede our leadership on this to anyone.”
Slated to support the investment from the quasi-government Michigan Economic Development Corp. is an approximately $500,000 Business Development Program and a state educational tax abatement valued at $1.09 million over 12 years. MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr. said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the incentives formally have been approved.
“The initial thought is that this would be transitioning engineers who have previously focused on ICE propulsion to EV propulsion,” Messer said. “These are men and women who, because of the acceleration of electrification, would not have previously had opportunities, and this allows the center to become additionally relevant within Toyota’s global network of R&D facilities that are working on not only electrification, but also hydrogen and other components. We feel that initially this is retention, but this will put us in position to continue to grow jobs at this facility.”
Toyota also is working with DTE Energy Co. through its MIGreenPower program to power the facility with solar and wind energy. The Japanese automaker’s plans call for its Michigan operations to be run by 100% renewable energy in 2026.
Toyota says it offers 22 electrified vehicles in the United States across the Toyota and Lexus brand. Each of its models will have an option by 2025. Toyota expects to invest $70 billion in vehicle electrification by 2030, though it emphasized multi-pronged approach to future product, including plug-in hybrids, hydrogren fuel cells and alternative fuels.
Toyota’s announcement comes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week at the Mackinac Policy Conference introduced a “Make It in Michigan” framework to encourage economic development.
“Together we will ensure that Michigan is home and remains home to the talent that the auto industry needs today and tomorrow,” she said, “especially as it continues to evolve toward more high-tech advanced manufacturing over the next century and beyond.”
General Motors Co. on Monday also shared plans to invest $1 billion in two of its plants in Flint to prepare for production of next-generation heavy-duty trucks.
Most of Toyota’s grant in southeast Michigan for STEM education will help to “break down barriers” by creating for at least five years an institute led by EMU with both Ypsilanti Community and Lincoln Consolidated districts for elementary, middle and high school students, said Alena Zachery-Ross, superintendent of Ypsilanti Community Schools. The University of Michigan College of Engineering and the Washtenaw Community College will provide educational and subject matter experts, too, and the program will include field trips and other interactive learning.
The grant also supports a multi-year transportation research and mapping study with the Community Transportation Association of America focused on barriers for students, including the communities the institute will serve. Southeast Michigan is the first of 14 U.S. communities that Driving Possibilities will benefit.
A third of Toyota North America’s engineers in Michigan come from the state. The automaker plans to make more workforce development announcements in the future as ICE and mechanical engineers transition to work on EVs and software.
“When we try and recruit or retain people to move to various locations, believe it or not, the two most important things do not include compensation,” Toyota’s Reynolds said. “They are quality of life, and the quality of the education system. If we can’t deliver on that, you can’t convince people to move.”
Added Ryan Gildersleeve, EMU’s Education College dean: “If we don’t invest in our educational infrastructure, and if we don’t think creatively and innovatively about how we can partner across industry K-12 schools and higher education, all of his wonderfully imagined innovative, exciting future, and the awesome opportunities that our government has been securing for our state won’t matter in 10 or 20 years. We need to be focusing on the opportunities that we’re creating for the young people who are here, and the families that we’re trying to attract who won’t come, because we don’t have a strong educational infrastructure for all families to move into these amazing trajectories for this imagined innovative future.”
Twitter: @BreanaCNoble
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