Toyota embraces electric after years of reluctance

Despite its pioneering status in the hybrid, Toyota for many years avoided getting on the electrification bandwagon. In December 2020, the president of the Japanese giant, Akio Toyoda, had even qualified the current of electrification of “overrated” and affirmed that the ban on heat engines would cause “the collapse of the industry”. A year later, its orientation made a 180-degree turn.

Charles René
Press

Some 70 billion. This is the total in US dollars that Toyota will invest to electrify its range. This is double the amount announced by General Motors so far. Of this total, half will be used to accelerate the electrification of the brand’s models from 2022 to 2030. Undoubtedly pressed by some investors who have recently expressed their dissatisfaction with Toyota’s strategy, the brand’s big boss wants to sell 3.5 million electric vehicles by 2030 thanks to this injection of money. By comparison, the manufacturer is targeting 9 million sales during the current fiscal year, which will end in March.

Concrete to support the claims

In order to do that, you obviously need models, a lot of models, which cover key segments. The announcement was therefore supported by the unveiling of numerous style studies of all genres. The largest volume of sales will undoubtedly come from the bZ range (for “Beyound Zero” or “for beyond zero emissions”). It will be a new range of crossovers spread over five different formats to occupy essential categories. Note that the first electric model to be marketed by Toyota, the bZ4X, is part of this new family.

Our eyes are also obviously drawn to a midsize pickup, very similar to the Tacoma. Toyota’s first declaration of intent to enter the electric pickup truck war. Note that during his speech, Mr. Toyoda specified that some existing models could be adapted to move only by means of electricity.

The other star of this major event is without a shadow of a doubt the Sport EV, a small sports car that inevitably recalls the MR2. As with all the models presented, we were careful not to advance anything technically, but this unveiling will undoubtedly reassure sports car enthusiasts.

Lexus was also not outdone with seven prototypes present, including the impressive Electrified Sport which seems to want to capture the aura of the LFA, a supercar produced in the early 2010s with a beautifully expressive V10.

Unfortunately, this show of force was not accompanied by any solid timeline on their marketing or details on the powertrains. However, we know that Toyota wants to put 30 electric models on the market by 2030. We will therefore have to wait, but, one thing is certain, we can only welcome the strategy.