Every Toyota electrified by 2025
Japanese auto giant sets another electrified vehicle target, but will it include HiLux and LandCruiser?Toyota has announced yet another ambitious vehicle electrification target – this time to offer some kind of electrified powertrain in every model in its range by 2025.
The move follows similar but even more ambitious commitments from Volvo (by 2019) and Jaguar Land Rover (by 2020) and is part of Toyota’s long-term plan to completely kill off petrol and diesel combustion engines by 2040.
However, it’s not the first time Toyota has made such a promise. Back in 2009 it said it would "introduce hybrid models in all vehicle series as early as possible in the 2020s".
Toyota now says that by 2025 – within eight years – every one of its models, from the Yaris hatch to the Tarago people-mover, will be available (alongside traditional engines in many cases) with some form of electrification, whether it be a petrol-electric, battery-electric or hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain.
Toyota claims that by 2030 more than half of the nine million new cars it sells annually will be electrified, as it accelerates plans to add 10 new battery-electric vehicles by the "early 2020s".
It will continue developing hybrid models but has clearly seen the writing on the wall and is scrambling to catch up to rivals already deploying EVs. Toyota has signed an agreement to work with Mazda to co-develop a new battery electric vehicle (BEV) by 2021.
The new Toyota BEVs will be augmented by more hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and the Japanese car-maker claims it will "no longer develop models without an electrified version".
The company insists it will have "10 battery electric models worldwide by the early 2020s", with the rollout to start in China, then Japan, India, North America and Europe.
It remains to be seen if this pledge includes Australia. Toyota Australia was approached for comment and is yet to respond.
If Australia is included in the 2025 EV promise, vehicles such as the Toyota Prado, LandCruiser and HiLux would all require new platforms to deliver, at the very least, a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain.
Both SUVs and the top-selling one-tonne ute are due for renewal before 2025, and Toyota does not currently produce diesel-electric hybrid powertrains.
In October, Toyota Australia committed to having no fewer than eight hybrid vehicles on sale Down Under by 2020.
Toyota already sells five hybrids here — the Prius, Prius C, Prius V, Corolla and Camry. It's understood the additional three will be hybrid versions of the RAV4, C-HR and Yaris.
There is a hybrid Toyota Kluger available in the USA, but it's not built in right-hand drive and therefore not suitable Down Under.
Apart from the Kluger, other non-electrified Toyota models sold here include the 86, Tarago, HiLux and 200 Series LandCruiser, plus the diesel-only Fortuner and the Prado and 70 Series LandCruiser.
The HiLux is currently Australia's best-selling vehicle but it remains to be seen if buyers would get excited about a hybrid ute.
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