Toyota allegedly scales back electric car plans

Now only one million BEVs are planned for 2026

By: Stefan Leichsenring

Sep 8, 2024 at 4:46am ET

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After General Motors, Ford and Volvo, Toyota is now apparently also cutting back its electric car plans. Only one million electric cars are now planned for 2026, which is 30 per cent less than the previous production target.

Last year, Toyota sold around 100,000 electric cars worldwide. That was not even one per cent of total sales. In the first seven months of this year, however, Toyota already sold around 80,000 electric cars and is planning to sell just over 400,000 by 2025, according to the report. The manufacturer then plans to more than double production in the following year. Toyota is therefore still planning strong growth in its electric car production.

Toyota has informed its suppliers of the changed plans, reports Nikkei Asia. According to the report, the decision is due to the current weakness in global electric car sales. According to data from British analysts GlobalData, around 9.7 million electric cars were sold worldwide in 2023 - 32 per cent more than in 2022. However, the increase has slowed: 7.4 million BEVs were sold in 2022, an increase of 65 per cent.

Toyota currently only has one electric car on the market in Germany (apart from the ProAce electric commercial vehicle): the bZ4X. The mid-size SUV sold just under 1,200 units in the first eight months of 2024.

Toyota still plans 10 electric models in 2025 (screenshot from the European Toyota website)

In 2021, the brand unveiled 15 new electric models at once. None of them have arrived in Germany yet. However, the European Toyota website still mentions a target of ten electric models in Europe in 2025. By 2030, Toyota aims to sell 3.5 million electric cars worldwide. Whether this target still applies remains to be seen.

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The bottom line

Toyota has scaled back its electric car plans. But even so, electric car sales are expected to increase tenfold by 2026 compared to 2023. However, the Group is having an easy time with such huge percentage increases, as the absolute figures are low. Only 100,000 BEVs were sold in 2023 - Tesla sells four times as many in one quarter.

The justification for the change in plans is also not very credible as the figures for 2022 and 2023 quoted by Nikkei Asia are hardly evidence of a sales crisis for electric cars. That would require more recent data. According to an estimate by EV-Volumes, global sales of plug-in hybrids and BEVs together are expected to rise from 14.2 million units in 2023 to 16.5 million in the current year. The share of BEVs is expected to fall from 70 to 66 per cent. However, even with this, BEV sales would still increase from 9.9 to 10.8 million units, which is still an increase of nine per cent.

Sources: Nikkei Asia, EV-Volumes