NEW DELHI: World’s largest carmaker Toyota will invest $35 billion as it aims to introduce 30 battery electric vehicles (BEV) globally by 2030. Toyota president Akio Toyoda has set a target for Toyota and Lexus brand to sell around 35 lakh BEVs by 2030, up from their previous target of 20 lakh.
India, however, is unlikely to see any big EV launch from Toyota in near future as the Japanese company, which has partnership with Suzuki Motor, which runs India’s largest car company Maruti Suzuki, said that their target markets will be Europe, North America and China.
India’s electric four-wheeler market accounts for less than 1% of total passenger vehicle sales and has vehicles mainly from three players (beside luxury carmakers) - Tata Motors, Hyundai and MG Motor.
These three players and Mahindra & Mahindra have aggressive EV plans for the Indian market in the coming year. Maruti Suzuki, however, has stated that it won’t be having an EV before 2025.
Toyota said that Lexus will launch EVs in all segments by 2030, go all-EV in Europe, North America and China by 2030, and stop selling combustion engine vehicles completely in 2035.
Similar plans have been announced by Ford, Volkswagen and Jaguar Land Rover as traditional automakers are facing severe competition from Tesla, which in no time has become the most valuable carmaker.