Toyota reports plan to sell over 5.5 million electric vehicles by 2030
December 18, 2017
Toyota’s RAV 4 hybrid vehicle (Courtesy Toyota Motor Group)
Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota City, Japan, states that it plans to sell more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles across the Toyota and Lexus line-up by the year 2030, including 1 million zero-emission vehicles. According to the company, its electrified vehicle strategy centres on a significant acceleration in the development and launch plans of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
Additionally, the company stated that by around 2025, every model in the Toyota and Lexus line-up will be available globally either as a dedicated electrified model or have an electrified option. This will be achieved by increasing the number of dedicated HEV, PHEV, BEV, and FCEV models and by generalising the availability of HEV, PHEV and/or BEV options to all its models. As a result, the number of models developed without an electrified version will be zero.
Toyota stated that it will accelerate the popularisation of BEVs with more than 10 BEV models available worldwide by the early 2020s, starting in China, before entering other markets through a gradual introduction to Japan, India, the United States and Europe. The FCEV line-up will also be expanded for both passenger and commercial vehicles in the 2020s.
The HEV line-up will be expanded thanks to the further development of the Toyota Hybrid System II (featured in the current-generation Prius and other models), the introduction of a more powerful version in some models and the development of simpler hybrid systems in select models as appropriate.
Toyota reports that it has been actively developing next-generation solid-state batteries and aims to commercialise the technology by the early 2020s. Toyota and Panasonic stated that they will start a feasibility study on a joint automotive prismatic battery business in order to achieve “the best automotive prismatic battery in the industry.”
Furthermore, Toyota aims to focus on the development of a social infrastructure conducive to the widespread adoption of electrified vehicles. This includes the creation of a system to help streamline battery reuse and recycling, as well as support of the promotion of plug-in vehicle charging stations and hydrogen refuelling stations through active cooperation and collaboration with government authorities and partner companies.
Toyota released its first hybrid vehicle, the Prius, twenty years ago, and released the world’s first PHEV, the Prius PHV, in 2012. Additionally, in 2014 Toyota launched the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell sedan, the Mirai. Through these activities, Toyota sales of electrified vehicles are said to have reached more than 11 million units worldwide to date.
