Toyota has announced it will allocate $ 35 billion to switch to electric car production, putting itself the world’s largest automaker in direct competition with Tesla, according to a report in the Financial Times.
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According to the target set by the company, it intends to sell 3.5 million battery-powered cars each year by 2030, and it intends to launch 30 models of electric cars by then. Models will include sports cars and commercial vehicles.
Toyota has previously argued that the best solution to the global warming problem should be a combination of hybrid cars, electric cars and hydrogen-powered cars, rather than just one bet on battery-powered cars.
“I have not been interested in Toyota electric cars until now. But now I am interested in future electric cars,” company president Akio Toyota said at a news conference.
Although the amount allocated is low, compared to 52 billion euros that German rival Volkswagen intends to invest in the transition to electric cars, it is significantly higher than the 17.7 billion dollars that Nissan announced a month ago.
The $ 35 billion allocated by Toyota will be divided equally between car development and battery-enhancing work. According to Toyoda, the company’s prestigious Lexus brand will be at the forefront of the company’s efforts, and all of the brand’s models will become electric by 2035.
The company also intends to target customers in the United States and China, where the brand is particularly popular. It is assumed that Lexus customers will make the switch to electric vehicles earlier than in other models. “Cars with batteries will be expensive, and the people in the best position to buy them are the people who already own the Lexus and not the Corolla models,” commented CLSA analyst Christopher Richter.
However, the company did not undertake to transfer the entire fleet of cars to electric cars on the grounds that they could not accurately predict the development of technology or the pace of adoption. “We can not know in Toyota what customers will choose, so we want to expand the range of options we have,” Toyota concluded. “We will provide options for everyone and adopt the right solution once we find it. That way we can stay competitive and survive.”
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