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Toyota made a number of announcements that collectively suggest that the automaker may be stepping up its EV strategy compared to what has been previously announced.
In an annual summary of the company’s financial results presented on Wednesday, president and CEO Koji Sato stated that it plans to launch ten models ranging from luxury vehicles to compact cars and commercial vehicles, “primarily in the United States and China.”
Toyota’s 1.5 million EV baseline
The executive restated the company’s target of 1.5 million electric battery sales by 2026 as “base volume”, and said that for battery supply, “will strive to secure the required volume quickly by increasing our internal production capacity and collaborating with our partners.” .”
That capacity increase suggestion hasn’t resulted in any sort of update of Toyota’s US EV targets. In its last update, in 2021, Toyota anticipates that 85% of its US vehicles sold in 2030 will still have exhaust pipes.
Three-platform Toyota for the 2026 EV
Toyota demonstrated that the 2026 EV could actually be built on three different platforms: a software platform, an electronics platform, and a body and chassis platform. It also says that it is completely rethinking the build process for EVs.
The company also announced on Wednesday that it will be debuting its next-generation EV (above) in concept form at the Tokyo auto show in October. In a teaser sent ahead of the financial presentation, the photo is captioned “greater efficiency”, and it “makes the heart race”.
Toyota teased a number of EV concepts in late 2021, with the announcement that it is planning 30 new EVs globally by 2030, so it’s unclear how much overlap there might be between the earlier concepts and the production-bound ones. In October it reported halting development on several EVs, while considering larger commitments.
It’s unclear whether that commitment was made, but in Wednesday’s update, Toyota included the three-row SUV in its extended model timeline in 2026.
Future Toyota EVs
Currently, the Toyota bZ4X electric crossover is a low-volume model for various markets, the bZ3 is an electric sedan for China, and the Proace Electric is an electric van variant for China and Europe. There is also the Lexus RZ for the US, China and Europe, as well as the European-only Lexus UX 300e.
While Toyota may be focusing more on EVs for North America, it hasn’t shifted its focus globally to them yet. It aims to increase its market share in emerging markets and Asia, and in Wednesday’s presentation showed projections that in Asia, the hybrid market is expected to increase from 8% in 2022 to 21% in 2030, while electric battery models will increase to 5 % then, from just 1% in 2022.
As Toyota has argued in recent years, with lithium’s limited supply, Toyota could achieve greater overall emission reductions by producing hybrids rather than relying solely on EVs. Of course, not everyone agrees.
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