Toyota will invest in the production of electric cars by 2030

Japanese carmaker Toyota is investing more than 31 billion euros in the production of electric cars by the end of this decade. The investment will be part of a larger vehicle electrification investment plan, which will include the production of hybrids and hydrogen-powered vehicles in addition to increasing electric vehicle production. Toyota announced on Tuesday that it plans to launch 30 electric models by the end of 2030. It thus modified the original plan, in which it stated that it would launch 15 electric models by the end of 2025. Under the new plan, it wants to invest a total of 4 trillion yen (31.2 billion euros) in the production of electric cars. As head of the carmaker Akio Toyoda said at a press conference, Toyota wants to sell about 3.5 million pure electric vehicles a year at the end of this decade. That's about a third of normal annual sales. Last year, its sales fell, as with other automakers, the results were affected by the pandemic of the new coronavirus. The world's largest carmaker also announced that it wants to invest 2 trillion yen in battery production by the end of 2030. Compared to the original plan, the volume of investments increased by 0.5 trillion yen. Electric vehicles still account for a low percentage of total car sales worldwide, but this market is growing rapidly. For example, in 2020, sales of electric vehicles increased by 41% compared to the previous year, while total sales of vehicles fell by about a sixth that year. Despite a significant increase in investment in greener vehicles, Toyota refused to join the six major automakers in November, promising to end production of internal combustion cars by the end of 2040. According to Toyota, many countries will have difficulty switching to greener cars for many years to come.