.jpeg)
Toyota Outlines Electric Vehicle Expansion Plan
At its prospection plant in Durban, Toyota South Africa recently hosted a special visit from Toyota Motor Corporation's executives following the recent organisational changes and policy announcement.
During the visit, three key pillars of the Toyota Mobility Concept were announced; Electrification, Diversification, and Intelligence.
That said, Toyota aims to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 as it accelerates Battery Electric Vehicle products worldwide and plans to launch 10 new models by the year 2026.
Regarding PHEVs, Toyota says these will have an EV mode that will enable the vehicles to travel over 200 km on battery power alone, while hybrids will significantly improve quality and pricing. The Japanese marque says it will pursue mass production of commercial vehicles powered by hydrogen shortly.
As for the intelligence pillar, Toyota plans to introduce advanced safety technology, multimedia, and feature updates to its range of intelligent cars. The next-gen BEVs will feature an onboard operating system allowing users to customise individual driving feel.
Regarding Diversification, the marque aims to vary its services into connected technology, parts and business collaborations with new partners to explore new types of energy.
Though the EV infrastructure in Africa needs to be updated, Toyota believes hybrid vehicles make so much sense as they don't take electricity from the grid but self-charge themselves and can reduce C02 emissions by 40%.
This means that the local arm of the Japanese brand will promote hybrids in both Toyota and Lexus. That said, Toyota SA will expand the Corolla Cross Hybrid variants and gradually introduce PHEVs, FCEVs and BEVs.
The brand also plans mild-hybrid options for its Fortuner and Hilux products, earmarked to arrive locally around 2024.
In a nutshell, Toyota has been hard at work beefing up its hybrid product portfolio in Mzansi for the past years, and hybrids make so much sense considering the nation's energy crisis. This is just another win for the brand.
