Toyota Has a Plan to Popularize Electric Vehicles
Hot on the heels of announcing a collaboration with Subaru to develop a new EV platform and launch an electric SUV, Toyota gave a big presentation in Japan detailing its entire strategy for the next decade or so.
Executive Vice President Shigeki Terashi talked at length about vehicle development and the stable supply, improved durability and reuse of batteries.
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He said that Toyota aims to have an electrified version of every model by about 2025. At that time, based on the current rate of progress, the automaker will have reached its goal of selling 5.5 million electrified vehicles globally including one million battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles—five years sooner than initially projected.
Renowned for its hybrid powertrain technology, Toyota will now put a lot more focus on zero-emission vehicles through the development of e-TNGA—the electric variant of the modular and scalable Toyota New Global Architecture—together with partners such as Subaru and Suzuki. Similar to Volkswagen’s MEB platform, it will serve a wide variety of applications in terms of vehicle shape and size, drivetrain and battery capacity.
There will be both passenger and commercial models as well as a number of personal e-mobility solutions like the i-Road. Toyota will start actively rolling out these battery-electric vehicles in 2020, first in China and then in other markets like Japan, India, North America and Europe.
By the early part of the decade, Toyota plans to sell 10 EVs including six global vehicles: a compact car, midsize and large SUVs, a midsize crossover, a midsize sedan and a minivan.
Of course, batteries remain a big concern. That’s why in addition to Panasonic and Primearth EV, Toyota has partnered with four more battery suppliers: GS Yuasa and Toshiba in Japan as well as BYD and CATL in China. The company also bought a stake in Fukuta Electric & Machinery Co. to evolve into one of the world’s largest suppliers of electric vehicle components and systems.