Toyota Motor Co. is cooking something for the brand to join the ‘surge’ in demand for electric vehicles in the United States. Reports have it that the Japanese carmaker’s plan is bannered by a crossover developed with Subaru.
Both companies previously announced that they will be collaborating on a dedicated EV platform where they will develop a C-segment crossover that will be part of the brands’ portfolios.
More details have now come up regarding Toyota’s plans to amp the brand’s EV deployment in the United States starting with a solid-state battery to be introduced in summer 2020. The company said it is expecting to get half its global sales – approximately 5.5 million units – from electric vehicles by 2025. About a million of these will be pure EVs.
According to Shigeki Terashi, Toyota’s executive vice president and chief of research and development, Toyota’s EV plans is the company’s answer to the “sudden surge” on EV popularization in global markets.
“Progress has surpassed the target,” he said. “We have entered a new age.”
In Toyota’s vision, the new EV platform will underpin six variations for the global market. The range will be composed of a large SUV, a medium SUV, a medium crossover, a medium minivan, a medium sedan, and a compact car.
The working concepts include a unique design with long wheelbases, slit-like headlamps, and camera-based sideview mirrors.
The brand’s EV plans is also related to its recently announced project with Subaru to jointly build an all-electric platform for midsize and large vehicles. The joint project is expected to debut in early 2020, targeting the U.S. market.
The last EV sold by Toyota in America was also a crossover that resulted from a joint venture – an all-electric RAV4 crossover built with Tesla. Toyota, however, discontinued production of the model in 2014 after only a two-year venture with the California-based company.
EVs account for only 1.3 percent of the U.S. market, but Toyota is willing to give it a go because the U.S. remains to be the world-s second-largest EV market in terms of overall volume.
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