Toyota Motor said on Friday (April 7) that it aims to introduce 10 new pure electric vehicle models by 2026, a sign that the Japanese auto giant is trying to catch up in the electric vehicle field.
Hiroki Nakajima, Chief Technology Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation, pointed out at a press conference today that Toyota will set up a new dedicated department to focus on the research and development and production of pure electric vehicles, with the goal of producing 1.5 million vehicles per year by 2026. battery powered car.
As the world’s largest automaker by sales, Toyota just experienced a senior management change this month. Toyota Motor‘s executive director Sato Hengji officially took office as president on April 1. This is the first time Toyota has changed its president after about 14 years.
While Toyota has been a pioneer in pioneering hybrid vehicles in the past, critics have increasingly accused the automaker of slowing down its transition to all-electric vehicles in the face of growing demand for low-carbon vehicles. Progress has been slow.
In response, the company argued that retaining a variety of options, including gasoline-electric hybrids, made more sense for its global customer base.
Koji Sato, Toyota’s new president, said the company would accelerate the development of battery-electric vehicles, but added that hybrid vehicles would remain an important pillar of its business.
He said that in the next few years, we will expand our product line in the important field of pure electric vehicles. Toyota will take a “practical approach” to promote new energy vehicles, including hybrid vehicles.
The world’s largest car company began to “catch up”?
The industry generally expects that by 2030, electric vehicles will account for more than half of the world’s total car production, and whether it can meet the needs of this transformation is crucial to whether Toyota can defend its position as the world’s largest car company. So far, Toyota’s performance is clearly not satisfactory-its first pure electric vehicle, the bZ4X, was previously recalled in advance and sales are limited.
According to the sales data released by Toyota at the end of January, although its sales of pure electric vehicles in 2022 will increase by about 70%, the total will only be 24,466.
Due to the lack of pure electric models, this major shortcoming has even begun to affect Toyota’s overall sales. According to Toyota, its U.S. sales fell nearly 9 percent in the first quarter, while sales of one of its competitors, General Motors, rose 18 percent, boosted by increased demand for electric vehicles from commercial fleets and business customers.
As climate change rises higher on the public agenda, Toyota’s situation has grown more urgent. The new U.S. EV tax credit doesn’t apply to non-plug-in hybrids like the Prius. And EU emissions rules force manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.
However, it is foreseeable that this situation may improve in the future as Tsuneji Sato works to develop a dedicated electric vehicle manufacturing platform. Given Toyota’s unusual global scale and production efficiencies, the company has significant resources.
In the third quarter of last year, Tesla’s profit per vehicle was almost eight times that of Toyota’s, partly because of its ability to simplify production and lower costs.
Toyota will need to learn from Tesla in terms of design and manufacturing innovation if it is to reduce production costs and turn an all-electric business into a highly profitable business the way Tesla has done.
Post time: Apr-21-2023