Toyota is going big on electric vehicles and made some major announcements today. Fifteen new electric concept cars were on display with the company CEO saying that they previewed vehicles coming "in the next few years." By 2030, Toyota says there will be 30 battery-electric vehicles (BEVs or EVs) at dealers between it and Lexus, with sales hitting 3.5 million annually, a figure that is around a third of its current annual sales.
The core of this will be the company's Beyond Zero or bZ EV brand, and the automaker has already revealed the production version of the first of those models, the bZ4X crossover. Four of the concepts are intended to be new bZ models: a compact crossover intended for Europe and Japan, a midsize SUV that seems designed for our market, a midsize sedan, and a large SUV with a third row.
Seven more of the concepts will be part of what Toyota is calling a "Lifestyle" line. These cars, behind Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda in the main photo, include a pickup truck and a compact sports car as well as what might be a replacement for the FJ Cruiser off-roader. There are also some commercial vehicle EVs as part of that group.
Lexus models were also part of the presentation, with that brand aiming to have EVs in every segment it sells by 2030 and to sell only EVs in Europe, North America, and China by that time. The three-row SUV named RZ will be the first electric Lexus, and it will be followed at some point by a new sports car that will manage zero to 100 km/h "in the low two-second range" and a driving range of 700 km.
While Lexus will be entirely electric, the Toyota brand plans to invest US$35 billion over the next eight years on hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell electric vehicles. The company will spend that much again on battery-electric models.
