Toyota delays mysterious SUV

Toyota Motor is hitting the brakes on plans to build electric vehicles in the United States in a bid to boost production capacity for a popular gasoline-powered SUV.

The Japanese automaker plans to begin producing the new electric SUV at its Georgetown, Kentucky, plant in 2028, more than a year later than planned. The unnamed plug-in model was originally planned to be built at Toyota’s Princeton, Indiana, plant, but will instead be built in Kentucky.

The move will allow the company to increase production of its best-selling Grand Highlander SUV, which is available 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 plans to start building at its Georgetown plant in late 2026, rather than early next year, a company spokesman said. The shift of EV production from the Princeton plant to Kentucky was previously reported by Automotive News.

The latest delays come as demand for electric vehicles in the U.S. has softened and could weaken further after the Senate passed legislation that would end popular tax credits that help buyers afford them. Toyota said as recently as May that it planned to have seven EVs on sale in the U.S. by mid-2027, including a pair of U.S.-made SUVs.

Total electric vehicle sales rose 7.3 percent last year in the U.S. to about 1.3 million vehicles, according to Cox Automotive. But Toyota has set a target of delivering fewer than 30,000 fully electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2024, even as hybrid gasoline-electric sales continue to grow rapidly.

Hybrid-electric and gasoline-powered SUVs are also in high demand. Toyota sold 11,577 Grand Highlander midsize SUVs last month and ended June with just a three-day supply at its dealerships.

“This vehicle has actually been our fastest-turning product in the lineup,” David Christ, head of Toyota brand sales in the U.S., told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.