Toyota reveals full EV range, including a ute
Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Toyota is beefing up its electric vehicle lineup, offering 30 new fully electric models by 2030, including a Hilux-sized pickup.
While no details about the pickup were revealed, pictures from Tuesday’s event and a design video released at the same time clearly show a Hilux/Tacoma-sized vehicle that shares a lot of styling cues with both models.
In the video Toyota Design senior general manager Simon Humphries talks of each Toyota electric vehicle being “unique and special”, intriguingly saying that applies to “not only those on dedicated platforms, but also those related to existing models” just as the pickup comes on-screen and he talks of building on Toyota’s off-road heritage, suggesting that the pickup could well be based on an existing pickup platform.
The US-market Tacoma and the Thai-built Hilux have been long-rumoured to be returning to a shared platform in the very near future.
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At the media event on Tuesday, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda showed 15 concepts for upcoming Toyota and Lexus EVs including sedans, SUVs, a small crossover designed for Europe and Japan, the pickup and a Lexus LFA-inspired supercar.
“We can leave a beautiful planet and bring about many smiles for the future generation,” Toyoda told reporters at a Tokyo showroom, standing on stage with the EV models promised for the future.
While details of the individual vehicles were not revealed, Toyoda said the Lexus luxury brand will become fully electric by 2035 globally. It aims to achieve that by 2030 for the U.S., European and Chinese markets
Toyota plans to sell 3.5 million electric vehicles globally in 2030, he said, up from its earlier plan to sell 2 million zero emission hydrogen and battery electric vehicles a year worldwide by 2030. Toyota now sells about 10 million vehicles globally a year.
His comments underscore the company's determination to reverse its reputation as a laggard in the industry’s shift toward electric vehicles.
Toyota prides itself on its role as a pioneer in hybrid technology and more recently in hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles.
The maker of the Prius hybrid, Lexus luxury models and Mirai fuel cell car wants to offer various options, Toyoda said.
He stressed Toyota must respond to global fears about climate change and carbon emissions.
The company also raised to 2 trillion yen (NZ$26.1 billion) its investment in battery research and development from the 1.5 trillion yen (NZ$19.5 billion) announced earlier this year.
When including other green technologies, like hybrids, Toyota is investing 8 trillion yen (NZ$104 billion) by 2030, the company said.
Toyota’s fully electric sport utility vehicle called “bZ4X” is set to go on sale next year globally, while the company is also building a futuristic city near Mount Fuji, designed to try out and showcase automated driving, sustainable energy and robotics for housing.
David Leggett, automotive editor at GlobalData, said Toyota was trying to prepare for the dramatic technological and societal changes that are coming.
“Businesses have to think about how demand will look in 10, 20, 30 years’ time, and the pathways that come back to their business plans over a foreseeable time horizon,” Leggett told The Associated Press.
Toyoda, an avid racing driver and the grandson of the company’s founder, acknowledged he had not been that interested in EVs in the past, viewing them as “commodities.' But he said he's excited about the vehicles Toyota is developing.
“They are safer, faster and more fun to drive. I can say that as a driver,” he said.