Toyota Motor stated it would consider selling regionally designed and produced all-electric automobile models in China, as it seeks to expand its EV lineup and adhere to Beijing’s upcoming new-energy vehicle (NEV) production and sales quotas.
China has set strict quotas for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that enter into impact from 2019. It has an enthusiastic target of 2 million NEV sales by 2020 and has indicated longer-term it will phase out the sale of traditional petrol-engine vehicles.
This seismic shift to NEVs has triggered a flurry of electric vehicle deals and new launches as makers globally race for a share of the world’s biggest automobile market.
“To respond to increasing demand for EVs, more widely and more comprehensively, we have started thinking about the possibility of having our China joint-venture partners provide us with EVs,” stated Hiroji Onishi, Toyota’s head of China operations, during the press conference at the Guangzhou auto show.
Foreign car makers are permitted to run in China by forming joint ventures with Chinese companies. Toyota’s joint venture partners in the China are FAW Group Corp and Guangzhou Automobile Group.
Aside from the all-electric battery vehicle models developed by its regional joint ventures, Toyota likewise plans to release an EV model, created in Japan, in China in 2020.
However the EV engineered in Japan would have to be produced in China to receive NEV credits, however it was not immediately clear whether Toyota prepared to locally produce the EV.
When China’s green car quotas work in 2019, automakers will have to build up credits by producing and selling adequate NEVs to hit a threshold equivalent to 10 percent of yearly sales. That level would increase to 12 percent for 2020.
Toyota stated it was also studying the feasibility of offering hydrogen fuel-cell commercial automobiles in China.
It started testing hydrogen fuel-cell cars in China in late October as part of a study to figure out the feasibility of selling its Mirai hydrogen electric passenger car in the country.
“We plan to continue to study fuel-cell automobiles’ feasibility in China and have decided extend its scope to include fuel-cell buses,” Onishi said.
