Toyota showcases electrified vehicles at the 2022 New York Auto Show, April 13, 2022.
Scott Mill | CNBC
Shares of the Japanese car company Toyota rose 5% on Tuesday after the company said it would introduce a range of battery-electric vehicles with “next-generation” batteries from 2026.
These will be developed and produced by a new EV unit called the BEV Factory, which was established in May.
On Tuesday in the presentation Takero Kato, President of BEV Factory, stated that Toyota is targeting a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) for its electric cars. The BEV Factory aims to produce about 1.7 million vehicles by 2030, Kato said.
In comparison, the Tesla Model 3 has a range of about 430 kilometers, while the long-range model has a range of about 570 kilometers.
Toyota has set a goal of selling 1.5 million fully electric vehicles per year by 2026 and 3.5 million fully electric vehicles per year by 2030.
Separately, the company is also developing a method to mass-produce solid-state batteries for battery electric vehicles and is targeting commercialization between 2027 and 2028. Toyota said will be searched for with a 20% improvement in travel range for its all-solid-state batteries compared to current batteries.
This is alongside a higher spec model which is in research and development. This model aims for a 50% improvement in cruising range compared to the current product.
A more significant shift to EVs?
Most notably, Toyota said it has discovered a technological breakthrough that overcomes the battery durability problem in its solid-state batteries, and as such the company is “reevaluating its deployment of conventional HEVs and accelerating [its] development as batteries for BEVs.”
HEVs refer to hybrid electric vehicles, which are vehicles that are powered by a conventional combustion engine combined with one or more electric motors.
That could signal a continued shift in the automaker’s EV strategy under new CEO Koji Sato, who took the helm in April. In February, Sato said the company would “accelerate BEV development with a different approach than before.” It was reported by Nikkei.
Under previous CEO Akio ToyodaToyota has come under fire for its slow approach to all-electric cars, instead sticking to the belief that all-electric vehicles they are one solution not solution for the company’s goal of becoming carbon neutral. This strategy lasted until the end of 2022, when it was revealed new Prius hybrid models.
Toyota executives were arguing they didn’t believe fully electric vehicles would be adopted as quickly as competitors thought, citing roadblocks and saying the market wasn’t “mature enough”.
Toyota says so on its website that the materials needed to make one long-range all-electric vehicle battery could be used to make six plug-in hybrid vehicle batteries or 90 hybrid electric vehicle batteries.
A more aggressive push for pure electric vehicles was seen in Kat’s presentation, with the president of BEV Factory saying that “we aim to change the future with BEVs… the next generation EV batteries will adopt new batteries through which they are determined to become the world leader in battery energy consumption EV.”