TL;DRToyota will start building next-gen hybrid batteries in 2027 as it expects to sell over 5 million hybrids globally this year
Toyota will begin rolling out a new generation of hybrid batteries next year, the automaker said during its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. The company will convert existing battery production lines in Japan with enough capacity for roughly 600,000 vehicles to build the new packs, which it says will deliver better performance at a lower cost.
“We are expanding battery production capacity during 2027 and 2028, and we will continue our efforts to fully capture customer demand,” Takanori Azuma, Toyota’s chief accounting officer, told investors. The company did not specify the chemistry of the new batteries or whether they represent an upgrade to its current lithium-ion cells or a different technology entirely.
The investment makes sense against the backdrop of Toyota’s sales figures. The automaker sold roughly 2,300,000 hybrid vehicles worldwide during the first six months of 2026, accounting for about 86 percent of its total electrified vehicle sales. Electrified models overall, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery-electric vehicles, and fuel-cell vehicles, climbed more than nine percent year on year to 2,700,000 units.
