TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Toyota Motor (NYSE:) plans to construct a battery plant for electrical automobiles within the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka and provide its batteries to a manufacturing unit that makes luxurious Lexus model vehicles, the enterprise each day reported on Friday.

The world’s top-selling automaker would search to make the island of Kyushu the place Fukuoka is positioned a central a part of its provide chain for battery-powered automobiles and an export base for Asia, the newspaper stated.

A Toyota spokesperson stated the corporate was conscious of the report, however that it was not one thing it had introduced. Toyota has been taking varied initiatives to strengthen its EV battery manufacturing capability, the spokesperson added.

Toyota makes Lexus automobiles on the Miyata plant of its subsidiary Toyota Motor Kyushu.

The automaker has beforehand stated it is going to introduce EVs using next-generation batteries globally from 2026, manufactured by its EV-focused unit BEV Manufacturing unit.

The corporate is focusing on gross sales of three.5 million EVs yearly by 2030, with just below half of these made by the BEV Manufacturing unit unit. It offered 104,000 EVs in 2023.

The quantity Toyota would spend on the battery plant and the beginning date for its development have but to be finalised, in accordance with Nikkei, which didn’t say the place it acquired the data.

The newspaper stated the plant will likely be operated by Primearth EV Power, one other Toyota subsidiary that specialises in making batteries for hybrids, plug-in hybrids and purely battery-powered automobiles.