Toyota to spend $35 bn on line-up of 30 battery electric vehicles by 2030

Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it would invest 4 trillion yen ($35 billion) to build a line-up of 30 battery electric vehicles (BEV) by 2030 as the world's biggest car maker looks to tap the growing market of zero emission vehicles.

That would be part of an overall investment of 8 trillion yen in electrified vehicles, including hybrids and hydrogen vehicles, by the end of the decade, the company said.

By 2030, Toyota is aiming for annual sales of 3.5 million BEVs, CEO Akio Toyoda told a news briefing, equivalent to around a third of its current global sales.

The latest commitment to BEV's goes beyond the 15 models Toyota earlier said it planned to have available by 2025.

The Japanese carmaker, which was a pioneer of hybrid electric cars but a latecomer to full EVs, also said on Tuesday it planned to invest 2 trillion yen in battery production by 2030, up from the 1.5 trillion yen it announced earlier.

EVs still only account for a small portion of car sales, but the market is growing rapidly, with new registrations up 41% in 2020 even as the global car market contracted by a sixth that year.

In November, Toyota declined to join a pledge signed by six major carmakers, including General Motors, and Ford Motor Co. to phase out fossil fuel cars by 2040. 

It argued that not all parts of the world would be ready to transition to green cars by then.

In addition to BEVs, Toyota also builds hydrogen fuel cell cars, and is developing internal combustion engines that run on hydrogen fuel, although it has not said when it might commercialise the technology.

($1 = 113.6200 yen)