Japanese automaker shows off its electric future: This is how cool the new Toyota electric cars will be

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Toyota is the world’s largest automobile manufacturer. However, when it comes to electromobility, the competition has recently been able to leave it behind. While some brands have already launched their second or third generation Stromers, the Japanese brand has put one Stromer on the roads so far. Their royal daughter Lexus already has two children.

So why the industry leader’s silence on Stromer? Toyota can only sell electric vehicles in Europe, Japan’s domestic market and, to a limited extent, the United States. However, the group produces large quantities primarily in South and Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. And for the foreseeable future, only a small minority will want to buy an electric car; The power supply and charging infrastructure do not allow this. This is why there has been a focus on hybrid technology for over 25 years; This technology brings efficient electric motors to the driver without the need for recharging.

Toyota feels the electric pressure

But the pressure is mounting. That’s why Toyota wants to launch ten new battery-electric models in various segments globally by 2026, six of which are in Europe. By then, 1.5 million Toyotas will be sold with fully electric drives every year. For comparison: With production of 10.6 million vehicles by 2022, this would be the seventh in sales. That doesn’t seem like much, but it isn’t when you take into account that Toyota is expected to sell 1.17 million cars in Europe this year.

Things are developing rapidly in electric cars: The serial version of the small Urban SUV Concept will start at the end of 2024, while the Sport Crossover Concept will be launched as a serial car the following year. The launch of the small electric sports car FT-Se is already foreseeable; Toyota does not want to provide more precise information yet. First of all, the wonderful FT-3e Concept still needs time: the brand wants to switch to a new generation of batteries, probably in 2027 or 2028: solid-state batteries should offer greater efficiency and more capacity, but consume less critical raw energy. It contains substances such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.

This year, the bZ FlexSpace Concept, a type of family minivan in portrait format, was also unveiled at Auto China in Shanghai. However, it will be launched only in the Chinese market this year.

Electric vehicles are not everything

At its annual strategy show called Kenshiki – Japanese for insight – the Japanese auto giant looks at future innovations beyond electric mobility and offers new ideas for eco-friendly mobility. Hybrid drivers accounted for two-thirds of the vehicle fleet delivered in Europe last year, and this is not suddenly a thing of the past in the group. The Hilux pickup has now been lightly hybridized with a 48-volt model. And Toyota is also staying true to hydrogen: ten prototypes of the Hilux with fuel cell propulsion are currently in test operation. Their range should be up to 600 kilometers. With the new generation of the off-road legend Land Cruiser, the internal combustion engine is also included in the starting blocks.

Toyota hopes to deliver a special boost to hydrogen technology starting with the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. As a mobility partner, Toyota provides the official fleet of vehicles, from regular SUVs to the Mirai fuel cell sedan, hydrogen-powered buses and boats. The special vehicles are intended to make it easier for athletes with mobility impairments to get around the city at the next Paralympic Games.

But the vast global range of internal combustion engines, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles and, in the future, hydrogen models will not be entirely cheap. An additional investment budget equivalent to seven billion francs by 2030 will enable Toyota to stick to its CO₂ roadmap in Europe: European factories must be CO₂ neutral by 2030; By 2035, CO₂ will no longer be an issue in new vehicle fleets; because then the EU ban on internal combustion engines will come into force. The group wants to be completely CO₂ neutral in Europe by 2040; and globally ten years later.

Source: Blick