Toyota Is Slowing Its Roll on EVs

Toyota is the latest automaker to delay its EV plans to do slowing demand.

Photo by: Toyota

By: Jeff Perez

Oct 3, 2024 at 2:30pm ET

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Automakers continue to delay their EV plans. Bentley, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and others have pushed back their electrification timelines as the market cools, and now Toyota is doing the same.

Toyota was scheduled to kick off EV production in the US in 2025. Now the company is looking at sometime in mid-2026. Like so many other manufacturers once bullish on electrification, waning EV enthusiasm has forced Toyota to rethink its strategy.

"We're still focused on our global [battery electric vehicle] target of 1.5 million vehicles by 2026," Toyota spokesperson Scott Vazin told the BBC. Even with the delay, the automaker still plans to produce "5 to 7 [battery electric vehicles] in the US," said Vazin.

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Toyota invested $1.3 billion into its Georgetown Assembly Plant in Kentucky toward the production of an electric three-row SUV. The company also spent $1.3 billion in North Carolina for lithium-ion battery production and allocated $1.4 billion for EV production at its Princeton, Indiana facility.

Toyota's three-row electric SUV will still happen—just later than expected. Nikkei Asia reports that design updates, which suppliers must catch up to, also contributed to the delay. As for the three-row Lexus EV scheduled for 2030, it is reportedly no longer being built in the US. Instead, Lexus will likely import that model from Japan.