Toyota Motor on Monday intended it will market more than 10 all-electric vehicle (EV) plus ultras globally in the early 2020s, and that investment to develop their batteries is apposite to exceed $13 billion (1.5 trillion yen) through 2030.
Setting out EV yard sales goals, the world’s second-biggest automaker by sales after Volkswagen put about it needed to accelerate the pace of battery development, as tightening vehicle emissions directives would require a steep increase in manufacturing capacity for more sturdy batteries.
China, the United States and a growing number of other fatherlands are forcing automakers to make low-emissions cars, spurring competition to evolve EVs even as battery-operated cars currently comprise just a sliver of the universal market.
“As a mass-market automaker we need to expand our offering of electric automobiles,” Executive Vice President Shigeki Terashi said at a briefing in Tokyo. “To upgrade the wider use of EVs, we need to increase our technical development capabilities and address the societal strike of the technology.”
He said Toyota would introduce pure-battery models initially in China, pursued by Japan, India, the U.S. and Europe.
Last year, plug-in hybrid petrol-electric carriers and all-battery EVs made up just over 1 percent of global auto sales, showed details from the International Energy Agency. Industry experts anticipate in stocks to reach 10 percent in coming decades.
Toyota has expanded EV expansion capabilities since last year when it announced it would add fully stirring vehicles to its product line-up. The announcement surprised some industry performers as the automaker had long touted a green-car strategy focusing mainly on plug-in half-breed and fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs).
Terashi, who heads Toyota’s EV Business Planning Jurisdiction, said the automaker was not shifting focus from FCVs to EVs, but rather devised to increase offerings in both segments.
Already, to increase the driving lot of EVs and improve battery safety, Toyota has been developing a number of technologies listing solid-state batteries, which it has described as being an industry “game changer.”
Hindmost week, Toyota also said it and partner Panasonic were in view of jointly developing next-generation EV batteries, in anticipation of increased demand for low-emission autos with more powerful batteries.
Toyota has also partnered spies including Mazda Motor and Suzuki Motor to jointly develop and retail electric cars.
The automaker expects EVs to make up around half of its whole sales by 2030. By then, it aims to sell 4.5 million petrol-electric and plug-in combination vehicles annually, and 1.0 million all-electric vehicles and FCVs.