Following in the footsteps of other legacy automakers like BMW and Volvo, Toyota has revealed plans to go big on electric vehicles over the next decade. The Japanese company today outlined a roadmap that will see the entire Toyota and Lexus lineup come with electric drivetrain options by 2025, with battery only and plug-in hybrids a key part of this strategy.
In terms of an electric vehicle revolution, things are set to get pretty interesting in the 2020s if recent chest-beating from some of the big names is anything to go by. Lately we've seen BMW move to drop an electric powertrain option into every model series and pump €200 million into its own battery research center, GM reveal plans to launch 20 pure-electric vehicles in the next five years and Volvo commit to launch only EVs from 2019.
Now Toyota, who sold more cars than any other automaker in four of the past five years, is making its move. At the heart of its newly unveiled EV strategy is a heightened focus on its hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
It says by 2025, every model in the Toyota and Lexus line-up will be available in one of these forms, meaning that the number of models offered without some kind of electric drivetrain will be exactly zero. It plans to introduce more than 10 new battery electric vehicles in the early 2020s, and expand its fuel cell lineup of passenger and commercial vehicles throughout the decade as well. Together, it hopes to sell more than 1 million zero-emission vehicles (BEVs and FCEVs) and 5.5 million electrified vehicles all up by 2030.
It also expects further work on its Toyota Hybrid System II (THS-II), introduced last year and used as the powertrain in the current Prius, will allow the expansion of its PHEV lineup.
Source: Toyota
