Toyota Europe will align its CO2-reduction goal with the European Union’s tougher fleet emissions target.
“We are just as ambitious [as the EU] and we will have the portfolio of electrified products available to make it happen,” Toyota Europe CEO Johan van Zyl told Automotive News Europe in a video chat.
EU policymakers want to automakers to slash fleet CO2 emissions by 50 percent in 2030 compared with the 95 grams per km requirement that takes effect this year. The EU had previously wanted to cut CO2 output from vehicles by 37.5 percent over the next decade. The EU aims to be climate neutral by 2050 under the so-called European Green Deal.
To do its part, Toyota says that zero-emissions vehicles will account for a third of its sales in Europe by the end of the decade. “We should sell about 35 percent of zero-emissions vehicles by 2030,” van Zyl said.
Right now, Toyota and its premium brand Lexus offer one zero-emissions model each in Europe, the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai midsize sedan and the Lexus UX full-electric compact crossover.
Toyota’s next-generation full-hybrid models will account for half of its Europe sales by 2030, van Zyl said, while plug-in hybrids will have a 10 percent share and models that only offer an internal combustion engine will fall below 5 percent of the automaker’s total.
Toyota has been a global leader in full-hybrid technology since launching the Prius in 1997 and it has been a top player in hydrogen-driven powertrains since it began selling the first-generation Mirai in 2014.
Toyota, however, has been slow to enter the full-electric market. Van Zyl said that it about to change as the automaker plans a battery-powered product offensive during the remainder of the 2020s as it aims to halve its emissions this decade.
Van Zyl said that in Europe Toyota will offer 10 zero-emissions models by 2025. Six of the forthcoming models will use the new e-TNGA (the version of the Toyota New Global Architecture for electric vehicles).
The first e-TNGA based car in Europe will be a midsize crossover. It will launch in a couple of years, van Zyl said.
The automaker’s four other zero-emissions models that have either been launched or unveiled are the UX, Mirai and full-electric versions of the Proace City Verso small passenger van and Proace City panel van. Deliveries of the Proace City will start in autumn 2021.
Van Zyl added that Toyota expects to increase European sales of the Mirai tenfold compared with its predecessor. The first Mirai’s volume was about 200 units a year. Toyota expects sales of the second-generation Mirai to reach 1,500 units in 2021 and then hold steady at 2,000 annually during the rest of its life cycle.