Toyota Motor Corporation has said it is investing more than €11.6 billion in research and development of batteries, electric motors, and power control units for electrified vehicles between now and 2030.
This continues Toyota’s focus on electrification which started more than 20 years ago with the introduction of self-charging hybrid vehicles.
According to the auto maker, Toyota’s ongoing goal is to “accelerate the elimination of CO2 emissions and ensure true carbon neutrality through the entire life cycle of the vehicles it produces by 2050”. This investment is in line with Toyota’s Environmental Challenge 2050 that was announced in 2015.
Given that renewable energy is not yet widely available for the masses in many countries, Toyota maintains that HEVs still have a pivotal role to play in immediate CO2 reduction.
Without an abundant supply of renewable energy BEVs cannot effectively capitalise on their promise to deliver zero emissions in a mass market scenario.
According to Toyota’s calculations, the CO2 emissions reduction effect of three HEVs is almost equal to the reduction effect of one BEV. Looking at the extrapolation of Toyota’s calculations, the 18.1 million Toyota HEV drivers are reducing the same amount of CO2 as 5.5 million BEV owners.
Toyota has said it is already making major step changes in battery development across HEVs, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs ) and battery electrics (BEVs ).
For HEVs, it adds that its focus is on continuing to drive improvements in instantaneous power, and for PHEVs and BEVs it is focusing on battery capacity and endurance. This can be seen in the new RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid which Toyota claims has an electric range of up to 74Km.
Toyota added that its multi-billion investment “will make for safer, longer lasting, and more reliable high-performance batteries at a lower cost”, paving the way for more affordable zero-emission BEVs.
It concluded by saying with the rapid expansion of electrified vehicles, Toyota is working to build a flexible system that can stably supply the required volume of batteries at the right time while meeting the needs of various customers in different regions around the world.”
