Toyota is increasing its battery-electric vehicle (BEV) efforts under new CEO Koji Sato, who took over from Akio Toyoda on April 1. Toyoda, currently Toyota’s chairman and grandson of the company’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, will see Toyota target annual production of 1.5 million BEVs by 2026, up from the target of one million by 2030 that Toyota set in 2017, according to a presentation by Toyota’s Chief Technology Officer, Hiroki Nakajima, on Friday. Tesla produced 1.37 million BEVs in 2022, and supplied 1.31 million during the year, thus retaining its leadership of the EV space. Nakajima also stated that Toyota plans to introduce ten BEVs by 2026 across the Toyota and Lexus brands, with the company soon to introduce next-generation BEV family featuring batteries that are more efficient and increase range by twice the range of Toyota’s current BEVs.
Hiroki Nakajima
Nakajima confirmed Toyota will establish a new division focused on batteries, adding that the company is also investing in other technologies to reduce carbon emissions, such as launching more hydrogen-use vehicles, including hydrogen-electric vehicles such as the Mirai, along with vehicles that may feature internal-combustion engines that run on hydrogen. The new announcements share similarities with Toyota’s strategy on EVs from last year, where Toyoda announced plans to manufacture 30 EVs by 2030, many of which are to have Lexus branding, with one of these being a supercar. Toyoda also stated that Lexus would make zero-emission vehicles account for 100% of its sales in the US, Europe, and China by 2030, and by 2035 for the rest of the world.
Toyota also confirmed the production of a three-row BEV SUV in the US, which commences in 2025. Toyota did not specify a production site but said the SUV would utilize batteries sourced from a plant in Liberty, North Carolina announced by the company last year.
