After years of opposition to all-electric vehicles, Toyota has announced on Wednesday plans to launch its first all-electric vehicles in the United States later this year.
In a statement, Toyota said the three new models will include two battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) and a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). The company – which was the world’s best-selling automaker as of 2020 – also praised the environmental impact of the new vehicles, citing its belief that the “ fastest way to cut greenhouse gases in the transportation industry is to provide drivers with less carbon. ” choices that meet their needs. “
“We remain leaders in electrification that began with our groundbreaking introduction of the Prius nearly 25 years ago,” Bob Carter, Toyota North America’s executive vice president of sales, said in the statement. “Toyota’s new range of electrified products offers customers multiple choices of powertrains to best suit their needs.”
While Toyota has long been one of the global pioneers of hybrid vehicles, especially for the Prius, which he debuted in Japan in 1997, he has long resisted going fully electric.
In Wednesday’s statement, the company defended its earlier decision to avoid all-electric, claiming that internal research had initially found that the total greenhouse gas emissions from all-electric and hybrid vehicles were “ about the same … pollutants created by electricity production for the average American energy network used to charge batteries. “
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But the company’s decision to finally embrace all-electric – along with General Motors’ recent announcement that it plans to roll out 30 new global electric vehicles by 2025 – is a good sign of this. where the wind blows lately.