Following Toyota’s award for the greenest carmaker, the foot has hit the accelerator on electrified vehicle development with the intention of electrified vehicles making up 50 per cent or more of its new-vehicle sales towards the end of the next decade.
Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) plans for every model in the Toyota and Lexus line-up to have either a dedicated electrified model, hybrid or fuel cell option sometime around 2025.
Models from Toyota will no longer be developed without an electrified version. By roughly 2030 Toyota are aiming to have electrified vehicle sales exceeding 5.5 million units which includes one million zero-emission vehicles.
In the coming years, Toyota has plans for 10 more battery electric models to be available around the world debuting in China before expanding to other markets. Fuel-cell models will also be expanded for both passenger and commercial vehicles.
Hybrid vehicles are also expected to see new models join the ranks with the development of the Toyota Hybrid System II which is currently used in the Prius. A more powerful version of some hybrid models is on the cards as well as the development of simpler hybrid systems and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
When it comes to the limitations of battery technology, Toyota is currently addressing these challenges of energy density, weight, packaging and cost. By the early 2020s, Toyota hopes to introduce next-generation solid-state batteries which are currently in development.
Working with Panasonic, Toyota will shortly commence a feasibility study of a joint automotive prismatic battery business. The intention is that prismatic designs will reduce weight and cost whilst optimizing packaging efficiency with the need for fewer cells for the required voltage.
All of these advances in electrified vehicle technology will not be possible without the development of a social infrastructure which is conducive to the adoption of electrified vehicles which Toyota is currently focussing on.
Toyota will support the promotion of plug-in vehicle charging stations and hydrogen refuelling stations through cooperative and collaborative efforts with government authorities and partner companies.
This is just another step towards the October 2015 announcement of Toyota’s Environmental Challenge 2050, which aims to reduce its global average new-vehicle CO2 emissions by 90 per cent from 2010 levels.
Electric vehicle announcements have come thick and fast in 2017, Jaguar Land Rover has also committed to all new models from 2020 having some form of electrification.
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