Toyota's plan to offer more plug-in hybrids aims to take advantage of U.S. emissions rules that give them outsized credit for reducing pollution.
16 Aug 2024 | 3685 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Toyota was among the slowest legacy players to make electric vehicles, but could be among the first to cast aside cars powered only by gasoline, Reuters has reported.
Nearly three decades after launching the Prius, the company's gasoline electric hybrid, the company is moving to change most and eventually ...
This is an Autocar Pro Plus article. Subscribe to continue reading.
Toyota was among the slowest legacy players to make electric vehicles, but could be among the first to cast aside cars powered only by gasoline, Reuters has reported.
Nearly three decades after launching the Prius, the company's gasoline electric hybrid, the company is moving to change most and eventually all of its Toyota and Lexus line up to hybrid only models, two company executives informed Reuters.
The company chairman Akio Toyoda had stated in January that the global share of EVs would top out at a mere 30%. He suggests a 'multi-pathway' strategy that encompasses electric vehicles alongside hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and green fuels, and potentially among other technologies that are yet to come to the fore, Reuters reported.
"Going ahead, we aim to evaluate, carline by carline, whether going all hybrid, makes sense," the head of sales and marketing for Toyota in North America, David Christ had told Reuters.
The evaluations will come with each model redesign, if not sooner, the newswire noted. This includes the pending overhaul of the RAV4 for the 2026 model year, the newswire noted.
Two persons familiar with Toyota's product planning discussions noted that the automaker is 'highly likely' to give up the gasoline only version for the North American market, but has not taken the final decision yet.
Toyota has already stopped offering the gasoline only version of its Camry for the 2025 year, whereas its Land Cruiser and Sienna minivan come only as hybrids, the newswire noted.
Several of the company's hybrid only models will likely also come as a plug in hybrid with a bigger battery, as per two persons who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Christ noted that Toyota has not given a deadline for producing an all hybrid lineup, and a clutch of models of the likes of economy cars and pickups, could take longer due to consumer price sensitivity on the entry level versions, Reuters reported.
Besides hybrids, Toyota has a target of converting 30% of its global fleet to EVs by 2030, two persons in the know informed the newswire.
The company had earlier announced plans of investing USD 35 billion in electric platforms and new batteries by then, Reuters further stated.
Hybrids accounted for a mere 9% of the company's sales in 2018, which increased to 37% as of June, the newswire said.
Christ said Toyota expects hybrid sales to keep accelerating. "Next year," he said, "we definitely will be well over 50% of our total volume."
Toyota's plan to offer more plug-in hybrids aims to take advantage of U.S. emissions rules that give them outsized credit for reducing pollution. That's now possible because Toyota is opening a North Carolina battery plant that, by 2030, will have 14 production lines capable of producing 30 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of batteries annually, the newswire noted.