Toyota announced last year that it plans to sell 5.5 million electrified cars per year by 2030. And the world’s largest car market would definitely play a big role in the strategy. So, Toyota just unveiled an electrified version of two its cars at 2018 Auto Show currently underway in Beijing. The one you’ll easily recognise is the Toyota Corolla and the other one its market-specific sister car Levin sedan. The two have a plug-in hybrid powertrain that allows about 50 km purely on electricity. They are likely to be mounted with 1.8-litre petrol engines, though it hasn’t been confirmed.
Toyota Corolla PHEV and Levin PHEV will be followed by a launch of full-electric versions of the C-HR/IZOA subcompact crossover from 2020. The production of the Corolla and Levin PHEV will begin in China in 2019, marking Toyota’s first overseas production of PHEVs.
Including the three, Toyota plans to introduce 10 new electrified vehicles in China by the end of 2020. And, by further promoting its local production of electric motors (powertrain components), batteries, inverters, and other electrified-vehicle core technologies, Toyota aims to further accelerate its China-based vehicle electrification efforts.
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In 2017, including sales of the “Corolla Hybrid” and “Levin Hybrid” fitted with locally produced hybrid units, Toyota sold approximately 140,000 electrified vehicles in China. That brought its cumulative total of electrified vehicles sold in the country to about 350,000 units.
As for FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles), Toyota began a three-year verification-test program in China that uses Toyota’s “Mirai” FCEV last year. Toyota Senior Managing Officer and Chief Executive Officer, China Region, Kazuhiro Kobayashi said today at the Beijing Motor Show, “We are steadily and confidently advancing all aspects of our environmental strategy in China, the world’s most advanced country in electrification.”
