The management of Japanese Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC)has concluded plans to introduce a full lineup of 30 battery electric vehicles by 2030 and will invest four trillion yen ($35 billion) to boost battery production, the company CEO Akio Toyoda said on Tuesday.
With its latest commitment, the company doubles the number of new EV models, the previous plan proposed 15 models by 2025.
“The situation around energy differs from region to region. Therefore, Toyota wants to meet the situation and needs of different countries and regions by offering various choices in terms of carbon neutrality,” he said.
By 2030, the automaker is also eyeing for annual sales of 3.5 million BEVs, CEO Akio Toyoda told a news briefing, and intends to make the Lexus brand 100% electric. This will be equivalent to around a third of its current global sales.
Lexus aims to realize a full lineup of battery EVs in all vehicle segments by 2030 and to have battery EVs account for 100 percent of its vehicle sales in Europe, North America, and China, totaling 1 million units globally, Toyoda said. And it aims for battery EVs to make up 100% of its global vehicles sales in 2035.
“Over the past 26 years, we have invested nearly 1 trillion yen and produced more than 19 million batteries. We believe that our accumulated experience is an asset that gives us a competitive edge. Going forward, we will increase our new investment in batteries from the 1.5 trillion yen announced in September to 2 trillion yen, aiming to realize even more-advanced, high-quality, and affordable batteries,” Toyoda added.
In November, Toyota declined to join a pledge signed by six major carmakers, including General Motors (GM.N), and Ford Motor Co. (F.N) to phase out fossil fuel cars by 2040. It argued that not all parts of the world would be ready to transition to green cars by then.
In addition to BEVs, Toyota also builds hydrogen fuel cell cars, and is developing internal combustion engines that run on hydrogen fuel, although it has not said when it might commercialise the technology
