By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor
The global head of Toyota confirmed the automaker’s long-term commitment to e-mobility Tuesday at a press briefing connected to media around the world.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda shared several EV targets for the company, including sales of 3.5 million units annually by 2030, with some 30 battery electric vehicle models offered in the global marketplace.
This will include Toyota and Lexus producing battery electrics in all automotive segments, including sedans, sport utility vehicles, K-Cars, commercial fleet vehicles and more.
Toyota plans to invest $70 billion (USD) in EVs to attain those global goals, Toyoda told the media briefing. Half of that will invested beginning next year through the end of the decade.
The lineup would include fuel-cell EVs in addition to battery electric, and many companies are aiming toward greater production and distribution of green hydrogen. H2 does not contain a carbon atom, but must be generated via clean electrolysis (powered by zero-carbon resources) to be classified as truly “green.”
The Japanese auto giant touted its leading role in EVs in North America, but it’s hardly the only major automaker embracing electrification of the transportation sector. GM recently unveiled its “Factory Zero” in Michigan, while Ford, Volkswagen and others are reaffirming commitments to EVs over the coming decades.
Transportation currently accounts for almost 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. About 90 percent of the fuel used in driving, shipping, flight and rail is petroleum based.
Some estimates forecast that widespread EV adoption could eliminate close to 1,700 million metric tons of air pollution annually.
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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).
