By Nathalie Voit
Toyota is on course to produce 3.5 million electric vehicles a year by the end of the decade, a statement released by the company on Dec. 14 revealed.
The world’s largest automaker said on Tuesday it aimed to have battery-powered cars account for all sales of its prestigious Lexus brand in Europe, the U.S., and China by 2030. The Japanese automaker also revealed over a dozen of the 30 electric vehicle models it plans to sell by that date.
While the company was an early adopter of hybrid electric vehicles, it had yet to significantly invest in battery-only electric models, unlike global rivals General Motors and Ford.
Even earlier this year, Toyota cautioned against going all-in in the “pure” electric vehicle space.
“If you take a snapshot of 2030, the price of battery EVs and the provision of infrastructure around the globe probably won’t have advanced all that much,” said Toyota executive Jun Nagata at a news conference in May. “Hybrids and plug-in hybrids will be easier for customers to buy.”
The company now plans to invest 4 trillion yen, or $35 billion, to develop a complete lineup of 30-battery powered vehicles by 2030. In contrast, the previous plan only offered 15 models by 2025.
Toyota cited last month’s Glasgow climate change conference in addition to the Biden administration’s executive push in August to shore up domestic EV production as cause for its sudden reversal.
“Each country made their announcements and made clear the energy policies they had [after the summit],” Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, said, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to Toyoda, the company felt compelled to update its long-term plans to achieve net-zero emissions after participating in the summit.
“In this diversified and unchartered era, it is important to flexibly change the types and quantities of products produced, while keeping an eye on the market trends,” the president said during a briefing on the carmaker’s electric vehicle expansion plan, according to official translations of his remarks in Japanese, CNBC reported.
“We believe that quickly adapting to changes in the future is more important than trying to predict the future, which is nothing but uncertain. We want to keep options available for our customers until the right path is known,” Toyoda added.
Toyoda had previously warned that an immediate shift to EVs could “collapse” the “current business model of the car industry” as the supply network for traditional, gasoline-powered vehicles is derailed, according to the WSJ.
The president took a different stance on Tuesday, extolling EVs as fun and declaring electric motors superior to those of traditional cars.
The company is aiming for carbon neutrality in its manufacturing facilities by 2035, Toyoda said in Tuesday’s briefing.
