Toyota Motor Corporation announced that it reached an important milestone in annual sales of electrified vehicles. Toyota managed to sell 1.52 million hybrid and fully-electric vehicles by February 2nd, surpassing the previous record of 2016 by 8 percent. The year by year increase in electrified vehicle sales is ushered by Toyota’s Environmental Challenge 2050, according to which the company plans to achieve the goal of selling 1.5 million units in a year by 2020. Gladly, Toyota met its goal three years in advance.
Importantly, the aggregate sales of electrified vehicles were in excess of 11.47 million units, helping with the fight against pollution offering a reduction of 90 million tons of CO2.
“In just over 20 years, we have seen the sale of electrified vehicle increase from under 500 sales to more than 1.5 million,” said Shigeki Terashi, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Corporation. “This is a testament from our customers to the quality, durability, and reliability (QDR) of our electrified powertrains, and, thanks to them, this enables us to establish a solid and sustainable foundation for the mass production of a more diverse portfolio of electrified vehicles across our range.”
Since the launch of the Prius in 1997, Toyota has worked hard to achieve better results with their hybrid and electric vehicles and that shows from its launch of 2014 Mirai, the first mass-produced Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV), the 4th generation Prius hybrid in 2016, and 2nd generation Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Prius in 2017.
Yugo Miyamoto, Chief Representative of the Middle East & North Africa Representative Office, Toyota Motor Corporation, said, “We are excited to achieve this significant milestone, which reinforces our commitment to tackling environmental challenges. Toyota has the competitive expertise and know-how in the core technologies of electrification thanks to its experience in developing, producing, and improving major electrified components and many years of collecting feedback from markets around the world. We are deeply grateful to our customers in the MENA region for being an integral part of our success journey, and for continuously extending their support towards our commitment to environmental sustainability.”
Improving their efforts, Toyota will start mass production of Battery Electric Vehicles (BHEV) from 2020, commencing from China and India, followed by Japan, US, and Europe. Toyota has plans to introduce and popularize hybrid vehicles in emerging markets to further reduce CO2 emissions.
For the future, the company hopes to achieve 5.5 million unit sales of electrified vehicles by 2030 as mentioned in December 2017, as well as, introduce 10 BEV models globally by 2020. Additionally, by 2025 Toyota is aiming to offer an electrified version for all its models worldwide.
Note: Electrified powertrains or electrified vehicles may refer to Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), and Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs).