Toyota plans to unveil a brand new European-style electric SUV in 2021, before releasing the rest of an all-electric line, as reported by Autocar. The unnamed model will be similar in size to the CR-V and is set to be built at the company’s all-electric factory in Japan. It will also be the company’s first fully battery electric vehicle (BEV), a major milestone for any company on the cusp of a shift to zero-emissions vehicles.
The company has claimed that its experience from building hybrids will offer advantages to both vehicle range and battery lifespan. Toyota’s SUV-to-come will be the first of six BEVs planned for release under the new e-TNGA platform, which Toyota co-developed alongside Subaru.
Well, Toyota has always been reluctant to embrace BEV.
They seem on a determined course to stop being a mainstream car maker & downscale to micro mobility.
Perfect for certain conditions in Japanese, some other Asian & European countries, but not for the rest of the world…
— Renaïssance Man 🇿🇦🤝🏻🇺🇦 (@Hein_The_Slayer) January 3, 2020
Andrea Carlucci, Toyota’s European product development head, said that the new SUV would be very “European in design,” though it would be offered worldwide with the best balance of designs from the world’s regions.
Carlucci said, “the car will be a global model, and it offers the best balance to out together the needs of all regions.” He added: “It’s quite obvious that there’s volume in more compact models, and this is where we will look in the future with other models for the European market.”
In any case, the electric vehicle (EV) market is likely to blow up in the next couple of years, with traditional automakers looking to join the shift to EVs. Whatever the future may hold for companies like Toyota and its new EVs, Tesla is considered six years ahead – which means a lot of lost ground to cover for traditional automakers, most of which still have no EVs on the road as of yet.
