Japanese government officials say they are going to give subsidies of roughly 120 billion yen, or around 850 million dollars, to Toyota Motor so that it can ramp up its EV-battery production.

The automaker has unveiled plans to sell 1.5 million electric vehicles annually around the world by 2026.

But one of Toyota's biggest potential headwinds is having sufficient production capacity of lithium-ion batteries to meet the target.

The government support is expected to lead to a doubling of the carmaker's current capacity. The subsidy covers production in Japan.

The government is designating storage batteries as an item important to national economic security.

Toyota will be receiving a portion of a roughly 2-billion-dollar government budget allocation to promote battery development and manufacturing in Japan.

In April, the government decided to provide over 1 billion dollars for a factory to be built jointly by Honda Motor and major battery-maker GS Yuasa.