Mazda’s planning to spend $11 billion USD on battery production

Mazda has just unveiled its plans to invest in battery production, and that involves about $11 billion USD. The Japanese company just recently unveiled its $10.6 billion USD plan which will ramp up its battery and electric vehicle (EV) production. For now, the plan still remains a plan as it is being considered by the brand. 

The news comes from Reuters. In the source report, Mazda said that it is considering spending $10.6 billion USD in battery production in lieu of rising environmental regulations. 

Other Japanese brands have already made headlines this year with their investments such as Honda and Toyota. Reuters stated that even these two brands were criticized for their slow electrification. Other companies have seen a huge push into the EV space, and Mazda’s one of the latest to make a move (or just consider a move) into more electrification. 

"We will promote the full-fledged launch of battery EVs and consider investing in battery production. We estimate Mazda's EV ratio in global sales to rise to a range between 25% and 40% as of 2030," Mazda said in a statement. 

Mazda previously set its EV sales target of 25 percent of all its vehicles sold by 2030, however, industry forecasts from firms like Deloitte pin the new EV sales growth to be up to 32 percent by 2030 globally. 

As for Mazda’s plan, the brand said that it would introduce battery EV models in the “latter half of phase 2,” specifically between 2025 and 2027. We can expect a full-scale launch of fully-electric vehicles, however, anywhere between 2028 to 2030. 

The money that Mazda is putting into its investment is supposedly going to research and development. 

Mazda, however, will be feeling out the market and patterning some of its spending on EV trends. The spending schedule will depend on how popular EVs become in the next few years. 

Companies like Rohm Co, which supplied electric drive components, and Envision AESC, a battery maker have already been tapped by Mazda to do business together.