Dive Brief:
- Toyota Motor plans to triple its electric vehicle production target in 2025 to 600,000 vehicles, according to Nikkei Asia.
- In the interim, Toyota has set a production target of 190,000 battery-powered vehicles for 2024 as it prepares to carry out its electrification plans.
- The EV production target could make Toyota a stronger competitor to global EV segment leaders Tesla and BYD. By 2025, the automaker plans to launch an electrified version of every Toyota and Lexus model sold globally.
Dive Insight:
Toyota’s global production is expected to top 10 million vehicles in 2023. However, the automaker currently offers only one fully-electric model in the U.S. — the bZ4X SUV. Although the inventory of the bZ4X is limited, the company is getting ready to launch several new EVs in 2024, including an SUV under its luxury brand Lexus.
According to Nikkei, Toyota plans to launch an electric Hilux pickup model in Thailand as early as this year, along with electric SUVs in China. In addition, the automaker intends to launch an electric version of its Lexus ES sedan in Japan in 2025.
Toyota’s aim to ramp up EV production has been in the works since early this year. As of March, Toyota said it shifted more than half of its R&D staff and budgets to accelerate its work on electrification, advanced battery technologies and software-based vehicles.
In June, Toyota announced plans to streamline its EV manufacturing processes with new, modular designs, giga-casting and self-propelling production technology to lower the costs of EV production and make its factories more efficient.
Toyota’s future EVs will feature advanced batteries delivering driving ranges of 1,000 km (621 miles) or more, the company said.
The new EVs will be built at two of its main plants in the city of Toyota, Japan, and at a Lexus factory in Kyushu, according to Nikkei. Toyota will also launch its first U.S.-assembled battery electric vehicle — a three-row SUV — in Kentucky, with production slated to begin in 2025.
Toyota further intends to introduce solid-state batteries for 2027-2028 model-year EVs. The batteries currently in development could offer a driving range that is 50% more than the battery-electric vehicles on the road today, according to the company.
Toyota plans to invest more than $70 billion in electrification by 2030, with hybrid and fully electric models accounting for up to 70% of the company’s U.S. sales by 2030.
