Toyota has been one of the most ardently focused car manufacturers when it comes to environmentally conscious decision making, and it has now made its future ambitions clear with the announcement of a plan to sell 3.5 million electric vehicles by the year 2030. For context, Toyota sold 1.96 million electric vehicles around the world in 2020. This plan coincides with the decade when many governments in the world plan to discontinue the sales of ICE vehicles.
According to a data presentation by Trading Platforms, Toyota is investing a massive amount of money into the plan. The new investment comes up to $17.6 billion (₹1.32 lakh crore!), an increase over the previous investment of $13.6 billion (1 lakh crore). These investments are primarily made into battery and pure electric battery vehicle technology, since Toyota already has a considerable lead in hybrid technology.
Toyota also revealed the development of several EV and hybrid models, including an electric SUV and hybrid minivan. For now, however, their bet is on the bZ line of cars, the first of which was the bZ4X, based on the e-TNGA platform co-developed with Subaru. This platform will spawn a number of vehicles across body styles. Last year, Toyota unveiled 15 EV concept cars that will eventually become production models, including seven bZ models and Lexus models. Lexus is even planning to switch completely to electric by 2035.
The growth in investment in electric vehicles and the ambitious plans to sell 3.5 million of them every year is made even more imperative because of the way governments around the world are cracking down on the production and sale of EVs. The most prominent of these regions is Europe, in which most countries will outright ban the sale of ICE vehicles within the decade 2030-2040.