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Toyota has changed its mind about electric vehicles, declaring itself all aboard on Tuesday.
The Japanese car manufacturing giant said it would make 3.5 million EVs a year by 2030 and added that it wanted all models in its upscale Lexus brand to be electric by that year in the U.S., China, and Europe, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The projections are a significant change from the automakers’ announced intentions only seven months ago, when it said it planned to sell around 2 million EVs by 2030. In updating its plans, the company cited the November climate summit in Scotland where “each county … made clear the energy policies they had,” Toyota president Akio Toyoda said.
At the same time, the company cautioned that many of its consumers, especially in the U.S. were not ready for EVs.
That is particularly true because of a lack of convenience and cost.
The Associated Press reported on Monday the Biden administration’s announcement of what is being described as a bold federal strategy, including building 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles across the country and bring down the cost of electric cars, according to a report by The Associated Press.
“The future of transportation in our nation and around the world is electric,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at an EV charging facility in suburban Maryland.
The $1 trillion infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed last month authorizes a nationwide network of charging stations and sets aside $5 billion for states to build them. The law also provides an additional $2.5 billion for local grants to support charging stations in rural areas and in disadvantaged communities.
Biden’s $2 trillion social and environmental bill pending in the Senate, includes a $7,500 tax credit to lower the cost of electric vehicles.
Harris added that the while the auto industry is moving toward electric, the shift needs to occur faster and powered by policy and change in the U.S.
All of this dovetails with a local announcement last week that MP Materials Corp. will build its initial rare earth metal, alloy, and magnet manufacturing facility in Fort Worth.
MP Materials will develop a 200,000 square foot greenfield metal, alloy, and neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet manufacturing facility, which will also serve as the business and engineering headquarters for its growing magnetics division, MP Magnetics. The facility, to be located in the AllianceTexas development, will create more than 100 skilled jobs.
MP’s initial magnetics facility will have the capacity to produce approximately 1,000 tons of finished NdFeB magnets per year with the potential to power approximately 500,000 EV motors annually. The NdFeB alloy and magnets produced will also support other key markets, including clean energy, electronic and defense technologies. The facility will also supply NdFeB alloy flake to other magnet producers to help develop a U.S. magnet supply chain.
NdFeB permanent magnets are critical inputs to the electric motors and generators that enable EVs, robots, wind turbines, drones, defense systems, and other technologies to transform electricity into motion and motion into electricity. Although development of permanent magnets originated in the United States, the U.S. has virtually no capacity to produce sintered NdFeB magnets today.
The Las Vegas-based company also announced that it has entered a binding, long-term agreement with General Motors to supply U.S.-sourced and manufactured rare earth materials, alloy and finished magnets for the electric motors in more than a dozen models using GM’s Ultium Platform, with a gradual production ramp that begins in 2023.
The new federal EV charging strategy establishes a joint electric vehicles office between the federal Energy and Transportation departments; issues guidance and standards for states; and ensures consultations with manufacturers, state and local governments, environmental justice and civil rights groups, tribes and others, the White House said.