Toyota electric car announcement - brilliant plan or just a distraction? 30 electric vehicles by 2030, but which ones will make it to Australia?

Toyota's electrification announcement was accompanied by the unveiling of more than a dozen previously unseen electric vehicles.

In December, Toyota did something big. The world's largest car company has announced plans to electrify its lineup by 2030.

But by then, she hadn't just made a vague commitment to hit her target. Longtime company president Akio Toyoda announced live that Toyota and premium subsidiary Lexus will launch new electric models by 30 2030.

What was really extraordinary about the announcement was that Toyota didn't show just one or two new models during the presentation, but 15 new all-electric models. There were 16 at the show, but we've already seen the Toyota bZ4X.

Mr. Toyoda held out his hands in front of these new electric vehicles that will be part of the Toyota and Lexus lineups by 2030. With 16 vehicles shown during the event, 14 more are yet to be revealed.

The reason this is so unusual is because no other "legacy" automaker has done anything like this before. Many have revealed goals, detailed numbers of electric models they will eventually launch, or showed a concept or a new production model, but no one has laid it all out with examples of cars that will eventually hit showrooms around the world.

It is likely that many of the electric vehicles shown are in the concept stage and will be different by the time they enter production. With the exception of the Toyota bZ4X crossover, which goes on sale next year, and its mechanical twin, the Lexus RZ, which are almost ready to go.

Toyota's announcement caught the attention of many of its major competitors. Specifically, other Japanese brands that are just getting into electrification, such as Mazda, Honda, and Subaru.

Akio Toyoda at the presentation of Toyota electrification.

Given Toyota's popularity worldwide and in Australia, as well as its reach in major automotive segments, does this mean it's game over for all of Toyota's competitors?

Electric vehicles shown included a subcompact crossover (for Europe and Japan), two small SUVs, a medium SUV (bZ4X), a large SUV, a sedan, a sports car, an FJ Cruiser SUV, and a pickup truck.

Basically, this covers most of the key vehicle segments.

Remember also that Toyota will continue to sell combustion and hybrid models for quite some time yet, so adding all of these electric vehicles (and the ones we haven't seen) will only increase the brand's dominance in sales.

All of this is part of Toyota's commitment to become fully carbon neutral by 2050 through its lineup, manufacturing, supply chain and more.

Toyota's first bZ4X battery electric vehicle will be offered in Australia.

Toyota/Lexus aims to achieve global sales of 3.5 million battery electric vehicles every year by 2030 years. This part of the electrification plan will cost Toyota $100 billion.

The question to be asked is is Toyota just playing catch up?

Some major brands such as Volkswagen have been open about their plans and have even released a few "ID" models as part of their global push for electric vehicles.

Hyundai, Kia and Nissan are also slowly gaining momentum, as is Ford, but none of them have been as open as Toyota is now.

But it was not always the case.

Akio Toyota has repeatedly downplayed the role of battery electric vehicles in the future of the automotive industry and suggested that things are moving too fast, especially in Toyota's domestic market in Japan.

Speaking as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), Mr. Toyoda said in September this year that any move by politicians to legally ban combustion engine vehicles would lead to the death of Japanese industry.

“This means production of over eight million units will be lost and the auto industry is at risk of losing most of its 5.5 million jobs. If they say internal combustion engines are the enemy, we won't be able to make almost any vehicles."

This year Toyota raced a Corolla with a hydrogen internal combustion engine.

Mr. Toyoda is a strong supporter of internal combustion engines, believing they have a future with hydrogen power instead of fuel. Toyota introduced such an engine in a race car at an event in Japan this year under the hood of a Corolla hatchback.

According to reports in the US, Toyota is lobbying for a full transition to battery electric vehicles. The New York Times, and senior management is pushing for hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to play a bigger role.

All of these worries about battery electric vehicles make the latest announcement all the more interesting. It looks like a massive back flip, especially from Akio Toyoda himself.

And that's odd, especially since Toyota is a pioneer in electrified vehicles. As the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car in the late 1990s, the Prius changed the game and is considered one of the most important vehicles produced in the last 25 years.

Since then, Toyota has built on this by offering hybrid versions of its best-selling models such as the Corolla, RAV4, Camry and Kluger, and has achieved over 15 million hybrid sales worldwide.

It was also early to have a hydrogen party with the Mirai sedan, now in its second generation, with more fuel cell models ahead.

Whatever the reason for Toyota's bold electrification plan, this is good news for customers. The more electric vehicles there are in multiple segments, the cheaper they will eventually become.

The Prius was the world's first mass-produced hybrid car.

But what does this mean for Australia?

Toyota Australia hasn't said much about which models will be showcased in local showrooms, but Australian president and chief executive officer Matthew Callachor said in a press release that Toyota is committed to offering customers a "range of technologies" for the foreseeable future.

“It is important that Toyota is not limited to one technical solution, because Australians have very different needs for cars: from urban areas to suburbs, regional and rural areas and the Australian outback,” he said.

This means we can expect some, but not all, of these exciting new Toyota electric vehicles to be offered in Australia before 2030.

See this place.