Toyota shall mass-produce long-range electric vehicles

Toyota Motor’s new approach

Toyota is taking a look at mass-producing long-range electric vehicles (EVs) that would strike the marketplace around 2020, the Nikkei reported on Monday, in exactly what would be a significant turnaround in plan for the world’s top-selling car manufacturer.

Even as competitors such as Nissan Motor and Volkswagen have promoted pure electrical automobiles as the most feasible zero-emission automobiles for the future, Toyota has stated it would schedule EVs for short-distance travelling, knowing the high rate of rechargeable batteries and prolonged charging times.

By including longer-range EVs to its item range, Toyota would be altering its tune from promoting plug-in petrol-electric hybrid automobiles and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) as the most appealing option to standard vehicles.

The Nikkei, without pointing out sources, stated Toyota would establish a group in early 2017 devoted to developing electrical vehicles that can travel over 300 km (186 miles) on a single charge.

Strategies under consideration consist of utilizing an existing vehicle platform such as that of the Prius hybrid automobile or Corolla for the EV, the Nikkei stated.

The paper included that Toyota intends to start selling its very first long-range EV in 2020 in Japan, which will host the summer season Olympics that year, in addition to other markets such as California where car manufacturers are required to offer a particular portion of zero-emission vehicles.