Toyota delays EV plans to boost petrol-fuelled SUV output
The Japanese automaker plans to begin producing a new electric SUV at its plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, starting in 2028, more than a year later than planned, according to the company. The unnamed plug-in model was slated to be produced at Toyota's plant in Princeton, Indiana, but instead will be built in Kentucky.
The move will allow the company to boost the output of its hot-selling Grand Highlander SUV, which is offered as a petrol-only or hybrid petrol-electric model.
The new battery-powered model will join another as-yet unnamed three-row electric SUV that Toyota now plans to begin producing at the Georgetown plant in late 2026, rather than early next year, a company spokesperson said. The EV production shift from the Princeton plant to Kentucky was reported earlier by Automotive News.
The latest delays comes as demand for EVs has softened in the US and may weaken further after the Senate passed legislation that would end popular tax credits that have helped buyers afford those vehicles. Toyota said as recently as May that it plans to offer seven EVs for sale in the US by mid-2027, including the pair of US-made SUVs.
Total EV sales rose 7.3 per cent in the US last year to some 1.3 million vehicles, according to Cox Automotive. But Toyota delivered fewer than 30,000 all-electric in the US in 2024, even as its sales of hybrid petrol-electrics skyrocketed.
At the same time, hybrid-electric and petrol-powered SUVs are in high demand. Toyota sold 11,577 Grand Highlander mid-sized SUVs last month, ending June with just a three-day supply of them at its dealers.
'That vehicle has actually been our fastest-turning product in the lineup,' David Christ, the head of Toyota brand sales in the US, told reporters on Tuesday (Jul 1) in a briefing. BLOOMBERG
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But the judge found 'the letter was bare and bereft of details and merely asserted, without more, that the eight policies were held on trust.' Other documents Ms Lim relied on included an e-mail dated March 10, 2025, from Mr Lim Chee Meng to the trustees and part of his affidavit filed in 2024 for his bankruptcy proceedings, in which he asserted that he held the eight policies on trust for Ms Lim. But the judicial commissioner pointed out that most of the documents she relied on as evidence were written by or on behalf of her father after his bankruptcy proceedings started. 'By that time, it would have been apparent that Hin Leong's collapse could have extremely far-reaching financial consequences for all concerned, not least Mr Lim who was a director. 'It was at this point that Mr Lim started to insist that the eight policies were in fact not owned by him and should be deemed to be held on trust,' the judicial commissioner noted. 'The courts should be wary of such belated attempts by bankrupts to shield assets from creditors by retrospectively asserting the existence of trust arrangements without contemporaneous evidence,' he pointed out. Mr Lim Chee Meng, along with his father and sister Lim Huey Ching were declared bankrupt in December 2024 following a settlement of two lawsuits brought by Hin Leong's liquidators and HSBC against the Lim family. Their bankruptcy estates are being managed by trustees Leow Quek Shiong and Seah Roh Lin of BDO Singapore, who have taken the position that the three insurance policies vest in Mr Lim Chee Meng's bankruptcy estate. The trustees had asked Mr Lim Chee Meng and Ms Lim whether a third party would pay the bankruptcy estate the surrender value of the three policies, which was worth over $521,000 as at Jan 16, 2025. If no third party would pay for them, the trustees would then terminate the policies and use the proceeds to pay his creditors. 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