A global slowdown in demand for electric vehicles (EVs) appears to have been caused Toyota to walk back his goals.
Nikkei Asia reports that Toyota’s forecast of 1.5 million EV sales per year by 2026, announced last April, has been cut by a third to one million annual sales.
The publication does not cite a source for the revised targets, although it does note that the decision was “driven by the slowdown in the global EV market” and that “Toyota has informed its parts suppliers of the decision.”
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However, news agency Reuters Toyota said in a statement that it has not changed its projection of 1.5 million annual EV sales by 2026, while also claiming that “the figures are not targets, but benchmarks for shareholders.”
According to Nikkei Asia According to the report, Toyota will produce just over 400,000 electric vehicles by 2025, before increasing production to one million the following year.
Regardless of what target is set, and despite criticism that Toyota is slow to embrace electric vehicles, the figures represent a significant increase in current EV sales.
Last year, Toyota set a new auto industry record by selling 11,233,039 vehicles through its namesake brand, luxury brand Lexus, Daihatsu’s small car division and Hino truck division.
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bZ3X
However, EVs accounted for just 104,018 units sold, or less than one percent of the total, while hybrids – a technology of which Toyota was an early adopter – accounted for 3.42 million sales.
Nikkei Asia reports that Toyota sold around 80,000 electric vehicles between January and July this year, although the company is unlikely to reach its ambitious targets at this rate of growth.
However, another sales surge could happen soon as Toyota soon expands its range of electric vehicles.
The EV range is currently limited globally to the bZ4X, but also includes some market-specific models such as the Chinese bZ3 sedan.
When Toyota CEO Koji Sato announced his target of 1.5 million sales last year, he said the automaker planned to launch 10 new electric vehicles between now and 2026.
While two of these models will be exclusive to China – likely the bZ3X SUV and the bZ3C crossovers unveiled in April – additional electric vehicles include a US-built three-row SUV and a battery-powered car.
In late 2021, Toyota unveiled 16 EV concepts and announced it aimed to invest 4 trillion yen ($42 billion) in battery-powered models and related technologies by the end of 2030.
Toyota is still targeting sales of 3.5 million electric vehicles by 2030, almost double the 1.81 million sales that market leader Tesla recorded in 2023.
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