Toyota premieres own-brand battery electric vehicles
Toyota unveiled its C-HR and IZOA battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on the opening day of Auto Shanghai 2019.
The C-HR and IZOA will be the first BEVs to launch in China under the Toyota brand. Sales of the new models are expected to start from 2020.
Toyota also displayed other electrified vehicles, such as hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) variants for the RAV4 and the Alphard/Vellfire in China, as well as the Corolla and Levin plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) series, launched in March 2019.
Toyota also showed the RHOMBUS, a battery electric vehicle concept car developed by TMEC, Toyota’s base for R&D in China.
Commenting on fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), Toyota Executive Vice President Moritaka Yoshida said: “Since 2017, Toyota has been conducting demonstration tests with the Mirai in China. We are considering the local introduction of other fuel cell vehicles such as the FC Coaster.”
Beginning with the China debut of the electrified C-HR and IZOA vehicle models, Toyota plans to roll out more than ten BEV models globally during the first half of the 2020s.
It is moving steadily forward to popularize electrified vehicles, setting a sales target of more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles globally by 2030.
As of the end of February 2019, Toyota has sold nearly 13 million electrified vehicles worldwide since the initial launch of Prius, a hybrid electric vehicle, in 1997.
The volume of vehicles represents a reduction in global CO2 emissions of more than 103 million tons.