NAGOYA -- Toyota Motor said Monday that it will build a U.S. plant to make batteries for electric cars and other vehicles, part of roughly $3.4 billion in battery-related investments to be made in the American market through the end of the decade.

The Japanese automaker will establish a new company for the battery plant with group trading house Toyota Tsusho.

The venture, which will be 90% owned by Toyota, will aim to begin production in 2025.

This comes as the Biden administration is calling for a shift to electric vehicles as part of its environmental agenda. Stellantis, whose auto brands include Fiat and Chrysler, has also announced massive investment in U.S. battery production.

The new site, which will be Toyota's first battery plant in the U.S., will newly hire 1,750 people. Toyota will announce the location and the production capacity of the new facility at a later date.

The plant will initially make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles, with a view to producing electric-vehicle batteries later.

Toyota said in September it would invest 1.5 trillion yen in automotive batteries worldwide by 2030. The company aims to sell 8 million electrified vehicles, including hybrids, in 2030, of which a total of 2 million will be EVs and fuel cell vehicles.

Toyota has placed a clear emphasis on keeping battery procurement within its group, partly from the standpoint of quality assurance. The new company with Toyota Tsusho will be Toyota's third battery-related joint venture.

Toyota, together with Panasonic, established Japan-based Primearth EV Energy in 1996 as a supplier of hybrid-vehicle batteries. In 2020, the two companies launched Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, which is responsible for production and development of automotive batteries.

With the new venture, "we chose a structure that allows Toyota to operate independently," a spokesperson for the automaker said.