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Toyota has announced a five-year acceleration of its electric vehicle projects and a partnership with new battery manufacturers to secure its supplies by unveiling images of the next 100% electric cars.
However, the automaker's electrification plan remains heavily focused on hybrid vehicles rather than all-electric vehicles.
At a press briefing this week, Toyota's executive vice president, Shigeki Terashi, said the automaker predicted that half of its global sales would be electrified vehicles by 2025 five years earlier than expected.
Some automakers are talking about "electrified vehicles" when they talk about electric vehicle projects. They generally use this term to refer to the combination of hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and all-electric (BEV) vehicles.
Historically, Toyota has despised all-electric vehicles and focused on hybrid vehicles.
Terashi's conference was titled "Aiming to popularize electric vehicles," but it was clear that the Japanese automaker was still focusing on hybrid and fuel cell vehicles.
He said:
"We have not changed our policy towards battery electric vehicles. We are not focusing on the priority of battery electric vehicles and we are not abandoning our FCV strategy. "
Nevertheless, he has shown a willingness for Toyota to invest more in battery electric vehicles.
Battery-powered electric vehicles need more batteries per vehicle and they will therefore secure their supply more.
To do this, the US automaker announced its partnership with Chinese companies Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and BYD.
Terashi says:
"We see ourselves as a manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries, at the time we developed the battery for the Prius. But there may be a gap between the amount of batteries we can produce and the amount of batteries we may need. "
Working in partnership with two Chinese battery manufacturers is not a coincidence. Toyota predicts that much of its consumer vehicle sales will come from China, which has put in place stricter regulations to encourage sales of electric cars.
During the presentation, they unveiled new all-electric short-range vehicles:
In addition, Toyota unveiled images of all-electric vehicles that, according to the manufacturer, will be intended for "global deployment":
The Japanese manufacturer was talking about launching its first 100% electric vehicle in 2020.
Here is the complete presentation of Terashi:
Electrek's Take
Clearly, Toyota is still well established in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, which the automaker sees as a long-term solution.
I think they are wrong and that 100% electric vehicles offer a more complete solution, but it seems that they are also moving in that direction – albeit slowly and reluctantly.
I'm curious to see Toyota's first all-electric car. it will be interesting to see if, throughout the development process, they begin to convince themselves that it really is the future of the industry.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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