Toyota aggressively ramps up electrification plans

Toyota wants to have electrified powertrains available across its entire range by 2025, and plans to sell more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles annually by 2030.

Of those 5.5 million global sales, the company wants 1 million to be zero-emissions vehicles. Should the goal be met, more than 50 per cent of all Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold would feature some form of electrification. No new model will be developed without an electrified powertrain from now on, in an attempt to facilitate the achievement of that goal.

To make it happen, Toyota will bring about a "significant acceleration" in the development of hybrids, full-electric and fuel-cell vehicles.

More than 10 battery-electric models will be available by the early 2020s, with the rollout starting in China before gradually spreading to Japan, India, North America and Europe.

Central to this rollout will be better batteries. Toyota says energy density, weight, packaging and costs are all being addressed at the moment, with plans to commercialise solid-state battery technology by the 'early 2020s'.

The other side of widespread pure-EV adoption is, as you might imagine, having the infrastructure to support it. Battery reuse and recycling practices will be in the spotlight, while there are also plans to promote hydrogen fuelling and electric charging stations by collaborating with the right partners.

On the hydrogen front, we've been promised an expanded fuel-cell line-up – both commercial and passenger vehicles – in the early 2020s.

Along with solid-state technology, the company is teaming with Panasonic on a feasibility study for prismatic batteries. The technology promises to cut weight and costs, while allowing companies to squeeze greater voltage from batteries with fewer cells.

Finally, the next few years will see the continued development of the Hybrid System II currently doing service in the Prius. A more powerful version of the powertrain will appear in some models (Supra, anyone?), while a simpler iteration will also help expand the hybrid line-up ahead of the early 2020s.

Toyota isn't the first company to aggressively commit to an electrified future. Volvo will have an electric motor in all its cars from 2019, for example, while Volkswagen has outlined plans for a huge range of pure electric vehicles ahead of 2030. Hyundai has just announced a scale-up of its electric plans, too.

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