Toyota will finally launch an all-electric vehicle next year, but it would be only available in Europe at first.
For a very long time now, Toyota has avoided the shift from conventional to all-electric vehicles, although it’s the largest hybrid car maker in the world. However, it seems like Toyota is finally making the shift. The brand has announced it will soon reveal a RAV4-sized battery-electric model, built on Toyota’s brand-new e-TNGA platform.
In 2019, Toyota announced it would soon launch six all-electric cars, and this SUV is the first one on the list. At the same time, Toyota announced its partnership with Subaru, aiming to produce battery-electric vehicles. The companies then said that the EV would be the size of a Forester, which matches the teaser sketch quite well.
Toyota’s e-TNGA platform supports front, rear, or all-wheel-drive powertrains. It is also flexible in terms of sizing and can work with smaller and larger vehicles.
We still don’t have Toyota’s confirmation on when the electric car will be available. However, according to Matt Harrison, Toyota Europe’s sales and marketing chief, the reveal will happen next year, with sales starting a year after.
Toyota works tirelessly to electrify its whole lineup in the coming years. By 2025, it plans to sell 5.5 million electrified vehicles annually, more than 50% of its overall sales. Moreover, the brand will launch the all-electric Proace City van in 2021, in collaboration with PSA. As a whole, Toyota will launch nearly 60 electrified models by 2025, 70% of that hybrids.
And if you live in the US and are quite sad that Toyota’s upcoming BEV won’t make it to the states, you’ll be happy to know that Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus, also announced its own electric vehicle, which will most like make it to the American soil.
It would certainly be interesting to see how Toyota executes its plans. The competition in the EV market is fiercer than ever, although the Japanese brand has perhaps the longest experience with electrification out of any other carmaker.
