Toyota Scrambling Behind The Scenes To Reboot EV Strategy

[LarryT]

Toyota scrambling behind the scenes to reboot EV strategy​

The automaker reportedly realizes it's fallen behind rivals and, importantly, Tesla​

"Toyota is considering a reboot of its electric-car strategy to better compete in a booming market it has been slow to enter, and has halted some work on existing EV projects, four people with knowledge of the still-developing plans said.

The proposals under review, if adopted, would amount to a dramatic shift for Toyota and rewrite the $38-billion EV rollout plan the Japanese automaker announced last year to better compete with the likes of Tesla.

A working group within Toyota has been charged with outlining plans by early next year for improvements to its existing EV platform or for a new architecture, the four individuals said.

In the meantime, Toyota has suspended work on some of the 30 EV projects announced in December, which according to the sources and a document reviewed by Reuters include the Toyota Compact Cruiser crossover and the battery-electric Crown.

Toyota said it was committed to carbon neutrality but declined to comment on specific initiatives.

"In order to achieve carbon neutrality, Toyota's own technology — as well as the work we are doing with a range of partners and suppliers — is essential," the company said in response to questions from Reuters."

https://www.autoblog.com/2022/10/24/toyota-ev-strategy-reboot/

https://www.reuters.com/business/au...crambles-ev-reboot-with-eye-tesla-2022-10-24/

 

[ssun30]

This article mirrors a report from Japan that questioned the feasibility of their EV plan just 1 month after the December event. I did not take it very seriously since half of that article was hit piece against Akio Toyota himself. I no longer have the link to that report but it turns out a lot of the things it said could be correct. Notable things include:

The plan for chassis and battery manufacturing expansion is completely infeasible. 3.5M EVs by 2030 requires 280 GWh of battery manufacturing capacity, they have 6 in 2022 and just 8 by the end of 2023. That's not a growth curve that leads to 280 in 7 years.

They unsuccessfully tried to buy out Panasonic's energy division and that soured their relationships and now have to repair the trust.

Denso have had the entire 2nd gen BEV eAxles developed already yet Toyota will only start using them from 2025. Denso is getting frustrated because they want to sell those to the much larger broad market.