Toyota enters the electric vehicle market: 30 electric vehicles will be available by 2030, bringing a monstrous $100 billion push

Toyota is gearing up for an electric future.

It may not have been the first company to launch an all-electric car, but the Japanese giant Toyota will not be left out either: today the brand unveiled plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2030.

Emphasizing that this is not some "dreamy" vision that is decades away from being realized, CEO Akio Toyoda instead said that most of the new models will be released "in the next few years" and will attract a giant investment of nearly $100 billion. .

A preview of a total of 16 new vehicles, including a model that appears to bear many similarities to the Toyota FJ Cruiser, as well as showing a picture of a pickup truck that looks like the new Toyota Tundra or the next generation Toyota Tacoma. says it will invest heavily in battery technology and energy efficiency to make its electric dreams come true, including electric vehicle sales of 3.5 million a year by 2030.

This rollout starts with the BZ4X midsize SUV, co-developed with Subaru, and then the product line expands to include a large three-row SUV, a compact urban crossover, a new midsize SUV and a new sedan. Akio Toyoda promises to "meet the expectations of customers from the first car."

But it won't stop there: the brand has promised to electrify existing models in its lineup in order to achieve its lofty goal.

Lexus will also get an electric vehicle upgrade: the new RZ electric SUV, which shares fundamentals with the BZX4, will be the dawn of a new era of electric vehicles for a premium brand that will use battery technology as the cornerstone of its business. moving forward .

“Not only will we add battery electric vehicle options to existing vehicle models, but we will also offer a full line of reasonably priced production models such as the bZ series to meet the needs of a wide variety of customers,” Mr. Toyoda said. .

“We can position batteries and electric motors to give electric vehicles more freedom. This freedom will allow us to be more tailored to our customers, for example, meeting the different needs of different regions, the different lifestyles of our customers, and when it comes to commercial vehicles, everything from long distance transportation to last mile delivery.”

Toyota also appears to have confirmed that the revived MR2 performance car will be among the new models, with a yellow car parked behind the new model's display, along with a promise that Toyota's top driver and boss Akio Toyoda will be happy. with results. Toyota has not confirmed what the model will be called.