Toyota launches $70B EV push; Lexus will be all-electric brand

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. committed 8 trillion yen ($70 billion) to electrify its lineup by 2030, half of it to develop a battery electric vehicle lineup, as it looks to tap a growing market for zero-emissions cars.

But the world’s biggest automaker, which is a relative latecomer to full-electric cars, said it expected annual sales of full-electric cars to reach only 3.5 million vehicles by the end of the decade, or around a third of its current vehicle sales.

That is less than bigger rivals such as Volkswagen Group, which in July predicted that half of its global vehicle sales will be battery-powered cars by that date.

Speaking at a news briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday surrounded by more than a dozen planned full-electric models, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said his company was still pursuing a multi-pronged, carbon-reduction strategy that also includes hybrid cars and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

“We want to leave all people with a choice, and rather than where or what we will focus on, we will wait a little longer until we understand where the market is going,” Toyoda said.

His company’s plan to introduce a full lineup of 30 all-electric cars by 2030 goes beyond the 15 models Toyota earlier said it would have available by 2025.