Toyota to revise 3-year EV plan after wake-up call on electric transition

Japanese automaker and Australia’s best-selling vehicle brand Toyota is reportedly planning to adjust its 3-year electric vehicle plan, as it tries to catch up with global trends that appear to have run well ahead of its expectations.

According to a report from Reuters this week, quoting “two people with knowledge” who spoke on condition of anonymity,  Toyota will meet with suppliers early next year and reveal modifications to its EV strategy as the company admits to having underestimated the speed of the electric transition.

The Japanese automotive giant has purportedly been revising its $US30 billion, three-stage plan for developing and releasing EVs that it announced at the end of 2021. Reuters reports that Toyota is now looking to increase the adoption of performance-boosting technologies.

This includes everything “from electric drive systems – including motors – to the electronics that convert power from the grid to energy stored in batteries and more integrated heating and cooling systems,” according to the two anonymous sources.

One of the sources warned, however, that some of these changes may end up delaying other EV development programmes originally planned for the next three years out to 2026.

In a statement to Reuters, Toyota refused to disclose any new details or confirm the specific reports, saying only that it is “always actively discussing and working with key (suppliers and partners) on a variety of topics”.

Amongst the most important potential changes on the cards is a successor to Toyota’s e-TNGA platform, which was created by basically modifying an existing ICE car platform. According to Reuters, Toyota is toying with building its own “dedicated EV platform”.

The creation of Toyota’s e-TNGA platform was built on a number of false assumptions. These included a desire to build e-TNGA-based vehicles alongside ICE and hybrid models, and a belief that Toyota would need to sell only 3.5 million EVs a year by 2030, well under the pace at which the industry is growing.

According to sources speaking to Reuters, the need for e-TNGA EVs to be built alongside ICE and hybrid models is curtailing Toyota’s ability to deliver factory-floor innovations, a core strength identified by Toyota engineers in EV giant Tesla’s strength.

Planned changes are expected for successors to Toyota’s first two EVs for major markets, the bZ4X and the Lexus RZ. Sources speaking to Reuters expect these changes will help to close the gap with Tesla on cost and performance.

The news comes only days after Toyota Europe laid out its own strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, which included five new battery EVs by 2026. Toyota Europe’s aim is to see EV models account for 50% of their sales by 2030, before moving to sell only EVs by 2040.

It will be interesting, however, to see whether Reuters claims of a shift to Toyota’s EV plans include modifying Toyota Europe’s plans, which still fall short of a number of their competitors.

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.