Toyota’s Late Shift to BEVs Evident in Latest Financials Report – CleanTechnica

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Toyota has gone through dozens of pairs of shoes dragging its feet on battery-electric vehicles. There may be no more notable laggard on electric vehicles (though, neighboring Honda gives it a run for its money). I pointed out yesterday that despite all of its hype for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the past couple of decades, Toyota has sold barely more than 27,000 Mirai in 10 years, while it has sold almost 10 times as many battery-electric vehicles. The company may not be blasting this from the rooftops, but its most recent financials report for investors makes it clear in various places that the future is indeed electric vehicles using batteries.

Here are some of the battery or EV highlights from the report:

• “At the briefing, Toyota also outlined the establishment of a new company that will develop and produce Lexus battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and automotive batteries in China.”
• “In addition, Toyota announced that its American battery manufacturing company (Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina (TBMNC)) is ready to begin production and plans to begin shipping batteries in April.”

So, like others that are finally taking BEVs seriously, Toyota is getting more and more involved in producing its own batteries, including in the US.

Toyota in China

Actually, Toyota then had a full section of its report focused on this matter, titled “Accelerating BEV/battery development and production in the U.S. and China.” Here’s a brief infographic from that section on the China news:

Does Toyota deserve some praise for this newfound interest in batteries and BEVs? Maybe, but given how late it is, it’s hard to feel too much excitement for Toyota’s arrival. Also, we’re talking 100,000 units, not 1 million or 2 million.

“First was the launch of a new company in Shanghai, China, tasked with the development and local production of Lexus BEVs and batteries,” Toyota added. “Establishing a company that handles everything from development to production will enable Toyota to offer vehicles tailored to local needs swiftly.” Frankly, with China passing 50% plugin vehicle sales, Toyota has no choice — it either starts doing something more seriously on BEVs in the Chinese market or it leaves. Hard leadership decision there, eh?

Toyota in USA

This may have been more stimulated by Biden and the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which may well be canceled or gutted soon, or maybe it’s because the US is such a big market for Toyota, is obviously electrifying as well even if more slowly, and is becoming more protectionist (under both Trump and Biden). In any case, here’s a short infographic on Toyota’s US EV plans:

This is Toyota’s first overseas in-house battery manufacturing facility. Of course, as the infographic notes, the facility will be producing batteries for conventional hybrids, plugin hybrids, and full battery electric vehicles. At $14 billion of investment and creating 5,000 jobs, though, it’s no small move.

Here’s some soft, generic language on what these projects mean to the company: “The development and production of electrified vehicles and batteries will further strengthen a multi-pathway strategy tailored to local needs. Toyota strives to be a ‘best-in-town’ company that is loved and trusted in every country and region where it operates.” The good news is simply that EV matters are finally dominating Toyota’s agenda and financials report. Will we be seeing much more of this in coming quarters and years?