Toyota invests $35bn in EV development to rival market players
Toyota has announced it will invest $35bn in the development of electric vehicles (EVs), with the aim to rival some of the market’s biggest EV player such as Tesla.
The sum will be divided between vehicle development – as the automotive giant aims to sell 3.5 million battery EVs per year by 2030 – and investment in battery improvement.
Lexus will spearhead the company’s electrification efforts, realising a line-up of 30 EVs by 2030. By 2035, Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda, battery EVs will account for 100 per cent of its vehicle sales in Europe, North America and China.
“I wasn’t interested in Toyota’s EVs until now,” said Toyoda in a press conference held today. “But now I’m interested in future EVs.”
According to Christopher Richter, CLSA’s automotives head analyst, the announcement is a strong sign of the manufacturer’s commitment to become one of the biggest players in the EV market.
“They don’t make announcements like this unless they believe they can do it and want to do it. It tells me there is a high level of commitment,” he told the Financial Times.
Toyota’s EV investments trail behind the pledges made by competing manufacturers such as Volkswagen and General Motors but exceed the $17.7bn commitment made by Japanese rival Nissan.