Green Car Fans, Listen Up; Toyota Details Achievable Electric Vehicle Plans Through 2030

Toyota announced its plans for using electrification in all forms to solidify its green vehicle leadership into the next decade. The crux of the plan is that by 2030, "...the number of Toyota models developed without an electrified version will be zero." To be crystal clear for those who may opt out of the story at this moment, this does not mean that Toyota will be moving to battery electric vehicles only. Read on.

Toyota Electrified Vehicle Plan 2025
Toyota plans to have an electrified version of every one of its models by 2025. The term "electrified" as used by Toyota, GM, Volvo, and others, includes hybrid electric vehicles. When automakers make these announcements, we would prefer that hybrids be kept separate from vehicles that can propel themselves with electricity sourced from a power supply other than the on-board engine, but most automakers lump hybrids in with plug-in hybrids, extended-range EVs and battery electrics when speaking about "electrification."

Those looking for the electric vehicle goal, including only battery electrics and fuel-cell EVs will be happy to hear that Toyota expects to have sold one million of those by 2030. To date, its sales are in the low thousands of these two types of vehicles and the fuel cell ones are not working out. Perhaps Toyota's only green car that hasn't gone to plan.

EV Plans - It's Always China - Here's why
Like every automaker that sets EV goals, Toyota is including its EV sales in China as part of its announcement. The reason for that is in China, smaller-than-subcompact, short-range EVs are about to explode. Or continue to explode, or do whatever means a lot of them are about to be on the road. China is a country of cities with residents who have no intent to drive a personal vehicle to another city. Unlike in the U.S., there is no pre-existing personal mobility culture. Toyota, GM, and others will build what we would call "neighborhood electric vehicles" in huge numbers. These are not "real cars" to most Americans, but including them in totals makes for punchy headlines.

Toyota's EV Leadership
Despite the hype over Tesla and its Model 3, Toyota has produced the top-selling electric vehicle in America multiple months of this year and, as of November, was selling the third-leading model, the Prius Prime. Expected to top 20,000 units sold in the U.S. this year, the Prime will outsell the Model 3 by roughly 15 or 20 to one in 2017. If all goes to plan, the Model 3 will then crush all other EVs in sales in 2018. That was supposed to happen this year. We'll see what happens, and report accordingly.

Toyota's Goal - Partly There Now
Toyota already has met much of the goal announced today. With its hybrid electric RAV4 selling at about 4,500 units per month, the Camry, Highlander, Avalon, and Prius hybrids selling steadily, and with so many of its Lexus models already offered as hybrids, including every new model, Toyota is easily the automaker with the widest green car "electrified" offering in the U.S. market. And the most successful.