Under new CEO Koji Sato, Toyota wants to focus more on electric cars in the future and is planning ten new BEV models by 2026. However, Sato is also still committed to hybrids and therefore wants to continue investing in the combustion engine.

The 53-year-old Sato took over the CEO post from Akio Toyoda at the beginning of April and has now presented his strategy with the motto “heritage and evolution”. In his presentation, the manager spoke of a “multi-pathway approach” and listed HEV, PHEV, BEV, FCEV, H2 and CN Fuels.

Nevertheless, Sato wants to put more focus on battery electric cars, which had already been hinted at under Toyoda. With models like the bZ4X, Toyota came to just 26,000 electric cars sold in 2022. With the ten BEV models now announced until 2026, electric vehicle sales are expected to rise to 1.5 million units in this target year, or about 15 per cent of total sales. The target for 2030 is around a third, with 30 BEV models then.

Details on the ten models are not yet known, but they are likely to be basically adapted and further developed versions of the concept cars that Toyoda presented at the end of 2021. Since the market launch of the bZ4X based on the e-TNGA platform was not only accompanied by positive headlines, a newly established department is now taking care of the development of new electric cars – these are to be developed faster and cheaper than before thanks to new processes. However, it will be some time before the results are available – and Toyota will have to make do with the existing technology until then or, as with the Chinese market sedan bZ3, rely on partnerships, in this case with China’s EV market leader BYD.

However, Sato made a more concrete announcement: in 2026, an electric car based on a new platform with a new battery is to be launched on the market, which, at roughly the same size as current batteries, is to double the range. This is likely to be the solid-state battery long developed by Toyota. Whether the Japanese will manage to build battery cells with solid electrolytes in large quantities by then is an open question.