Toyota Motor Corporation made a massive announcement earlier today. The Japanese automaker outlined its future in terms of battery powered models. It seems that Toyota is going all-in with EVs in the future.

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In a virtual press conference held early this morning Toyota President Akio Toyoda outlined the company’s battery EV (BEV) strategies. In addition, he revealed 16 Toyota and Lexus BEV models that are being readied for market launch. When we reached out to Toyota SA, a spokesperson could not confirm when the first of the BEVs would be introduced locally.

Fast expanding segment

Toyoda announced the longer term plan is to introduce 30 BEV models. The auto giant is aiming to capture a slice of burgeoning sales of EVs worldwide. The company is anticipating sales of 3,5 million BEVs globally by 2030. The Lexus brand aims to have BEVs account for 100 per cent of the total sales in Europe, North America, and China by 2030, totaling one million units globally. And it aims for battery EVs to make up 100 per cent of its global vehicles sales in 2035.

Check out two Toyota hybrid models that are currently available in SA.

Heavy investment

In order to power all these new models Toyota plans to increase its investment in batteries from the 1,5 trillion yen, as announced in September, to 2 trillion yen (R281 939 600 000, in case you are wondering), in an effort to realise even more-advanced, high-quality, and affordable batteries

Among the vehicles that were unveiled today are city cars, SUVs, sedans, pick-ups and, best of all for fans of this page, two new sportscars (pictured above). The upcoming models have a new design language as well. There’s been no official word on whether any BEV vehicle will fly Toyota’s Gazoo Racing high-performance colours. However, looking closely we can see the recognisable GR badge on the front bumper of the little sportscar (pictured above). Read up on Toyota’s 2022 motorsport activities at this link.

Watch Toyoda-san absolutely hooning a Yaris rally car in the video below:

In his own words

He explained that we are living in a diversified world and in an era in which it is hard to predict the future. “Therefore, it is difficult to make everyone happy with a one-size-fits-all option. That is why Toyota wants to prepare as many options as possible for our customers around the world. We believe that all electrified vehicles can be divided into two categories, depending on the energy that they use. One category is that of “carbon-reducing vehicles”. If the energy that powers vehicles is not clean, the use of an electrified vehicle, no matter what type it might be, would not result in zero CO2 emissions.

“The other category is that of “carbon-neutral vehicles”. Vehicles in this category run on clean energy and achieve zero CO2 emissions in the whole process of their use. We at Toyota will do our utmost to realize such vehicles. The Toyota bZ means going ‘beyond Zero’. Freedom of movement and fun to drive for all. Our goal is not only to reduce CO2 emissions and other negative impacts to zero. Our goal goes beyond those,” says Toyoda.