Automakers continue to shell out big bucks for batteries, factories, and other EV tech. 

The most recent development in this trend comes from Toyota. Today, Toyota announced its new plan to spend $5.6 billion on electric-vehicle battery capacity. This move is a push for the Japanese automaker to catch up to the crowd following doubts about how fast the world would shift toward EVs.

Originally, Toyota had long been cautious about making the transition to battery-powered cars but it largely reversed that caution back in December. Since then, it has announced several plans for additional spending on the transition to EVs. Part of the transition plan contains spending of around $30 billion over the next decade. Toyota also aims to sell around 3.5 million EVs a year by 2030, a figure that is up from the previous target of around two million.

A big reason for the increased spending on EV batteries is no doubt attributed to the tax break incentives from the new U.S. climate and healthcare laws… President Biden wants automakers to bring more battery production stateside and EV models must have a certain percentage of their battery components sourced from US soil.

Fortunately, the more these developments roll out the better the outlook becomes for EV plays. Although a lot of EV plays still have some room to grow, things are looking more positive as time passes.

And EV plays extend beyond automakers and battery manufacturers as well. In fact, there are plenty of alternative ways to play the EV trend. For example, charging station manufacturers are a great way to get into the EV market. 

Biden’s infrastructure bill includes $7.5 billion in EV charging build-outs, and EV makers will be spending billions more to make it happen. Everyone from automakers to the feds will be devoting substantial resources to interstate charging stations over the next several years.

Moreover, electric vehicle reservations are way up. Even with production delays increasing wait times, higher gas prices should push more people to jump on the EV train and the increased spending from automakers is a good sign.

Even with the poor sentiment across the broad market right now, these plays look far into the future and are heavily discounted right now.