Toyota Looks to Electric Cars as Stronger Yen Dents Profits
TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp. gave a strong signal Tuesday that it soon plans to jump on the battery bandwagon and make electric cars despite expressing skeptical views about their range and charging times.News of Toyota's technology shift came as its latest results, released Tuesday, showed the company's profits were eroded by a stronger yen and the shift by American car buyers toward trucks and sport-utility vehicles.The company is...
Toyota Slowly Adding Electric Cars To Its Product Planning
Toyota Slowly Adding Electric Cars To Its Product PlanningToyota Motor Corp. is slowly opening up to adding all-electric vehicles to its product lineup to meet regulatory compliance, according to a company executive.While the Japanese automaker in not manufacturing any battery-electric cars at this time, Toyota realizes it must be flexible enough to introduce electric cars in markets with regulatory mandates or where the infrastructure is best suited to them, Executive Vice President Takahiko Ijichi said Tuesday to Automotive News.It's not going to be easy, though, he said.
Toyota Sets Sights on Long-Range Electric Cars
Toyota Motor tm is looking at mass-producing long-range electric vehicles (EVs) that would hit the market around 2020, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, in what would be a dramatic reversal in strategy for the world's top-selling automaker.Even as rivals such as Nissan Motor nsany and Volkswagen vlkay have touted pure electric cars as the most viable zero-emission vehicles for the future, Toyota has said it would reserve EVs for short-distance commuting given the high price of rechargeable batteries and lengthy charging times.By adding longer-range EVs to its product range, Toyota would be changing its tune from promoting plug-in petrol-electric hybrid cars and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) as the most promising alternative to conventional cars.