How Toyota’s putting the grrrrr in green
Toyota dwarfs Tesla when it comes to electrification. It also has a renewed taste for risk
Tesla, the markets have decided, is worth $100bn. But Tesla is still only the world’s second most valuable car maker. Number one remains Toyota, by a mile: the Japanese company’s valuation is over $230bn. It also makes hefty profits, unlike Tesla. And it sells 9.5 million vehicles a year, to Tesla’s 367,500 in 2019.
You don’t get to be that big and that successful by standing still. Toyota is full of ideas. And although the focus is on being environmentally responsible and sustainable, as you’d expect from a company that’s about to sell its 15 millionth hybrid vehicle, it’s also having a fresh push into enthusiast-pleasing performance cars.
Matt Harrison, executive vice-president of Toyota Europe, says: ‘Before 2025, we expect more than 70 per cent of our vehicle sales across Europe to have hybrid-electric powertrains, more than 10 per cent to be plug-in hybrids, more than 10 per cent to be zero-emission vehicles [battery-electric or fuel-cell], leaving only 10 per cent of our sales not electrified.’
What’s going on with that other 10 per cent? Harrison: ‘There are, and will remain through 2025, certain segments, markets and vehicle types in Europe where electrification is not appropriate, demanded or affordable in the short term.’ That means a reprieve for off-roaders and pick-ups. And at the other extreme Toyota is expanding its Gazoo Racing division, which straddles motorsport and light, nimble road cars. The GR Supra is about to be joined by the GR Yaris, and in 2021 expect the GR version of the GT86. GR is also busy with its entry for the Le Mans Hypercar class, which will involve road-legal versions.
GR’s chiefs insist there’s less of a contradiction between GR and the eco-minded mainstream line-up than you might think.
Yumi Otsuka, GR general manager, told CAR: ‘We will still make sports cars for those who have a passion to drive.’ And, she said, feedback from GR’s motorsport activities – rally, endurance, GT4 and Dakar – had direct technological benefits for the road-car line-up. ‘The management appreciate what we’re doing, and the benefits for the whole group, but we do need to make money – money that is then invested in motorsport, in a
virtuous circle.’
‘We will still make sports cars for those who have a passion to drive’