Toyota achieves electrified vehicle target three-years early

6 February 2018

Japanese vehicle manufacturer Toyota has achieved its target of 1.5 million electrified vehicles sales in a year, three years ahead of its target.

The company released a statement announcing it had achieved 1.52 million sales worldwide in 2017. This figure marks an increase of 8% on the previous record set in 2016, giving the manufacturer back-to-back years of growth and helping it to accomplish one of Toyota’s Environmental Challenge 2050 goals, which was originally set for 2020.

This puts the company on course to reach its next target of 5.5 million electrified vehicle sales a year by 2030. The UK contributed to this performance with a 40% increase in hybrid electric vehicle sales in 2017 to more than 45.500 units (Toyota and Lexus models combined). This represents a saving of more than 90 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, compared to sales of equivalent, conventionally powered vehicles.

Cumulative global sales of Toyota electrified vehicles are now in excess of 11.47 million since the introduction of the original Prius in 1997.

′In just over 20 years, we have seen sales of new electrified vehicles increase from less than 500 to more than 1.5 million,’ said Shigeki Terashi, Toyota Motor Corporation executive vice president. ′This is a testament of faith from our customers in the quality, durability and reliability of our electrified powertrains. Thanks to them, we have established a solid and sustainable foundation for the mass production of a more diverse portfolio of electrified vehicles across our range.’

Toyota will continue to develop and diversify its electrified vehicles, including the mass production of battery electric vehicles from 2020, initially in China and India, and later in Japan, the US and Europe. This will contribute to its target of 5.5 million electrified vehicle sales a year by 2030, together with the introduction of electrified versions of models across its global line-up. The company also aims to further expand sales of hybrid electric vehicles in emerging markets, helping to reduce carbon emissions from new vehicle sales worldwide.

The company had not planned to develop electric vehicles (EV), however the quota system being introduced in China in 2019 has forced the manufacturer into what it calls an ′agonising u-turn‘. Since then, the company has invested in developing solid-state batteries for EV models.

In addition, the company plans to achieve annual global sales of more than 30,000 fuel cell electric vehicles around or after 2020. This includes selling at least 1,000 fuel cell electric vehicles a month in Japan,

Toyota also plans to reduce its average CO2 emissions from new vehicles by more than 22%by 2020, compared to the company’s 2010 average. The carmaker is one of only a handful of manufacturers on target to meet European CO2 emission levels by 2021.

Photograph courtesy of Toyota