Toyota announces electric car pivot with Lexus in the lead as Sandy Munro says it can catch up to Tesla

The new CEO of Toyota took to the stage today to announce the new pillars of the company’s future and the first one is electrification of its fleet with a brand new platform engineered for battery-powered vehicles from the ground up. Toyota’s Lexus brand will be leading its rapid electrification push, and the first Lexus built on the new purely EV platform will arrive in 2026, while Toyota will be launching other electric vehicles like the 2023 Lexus R450e in the meantime:

Now that the time is right, we will accelerate BEV development with a new approach. Specifically, we will develop next-generation BEVs for Lexus brand by 2026, with everything from the battery and platform to how a car is built optimized for BEVs, while expanding our current BEV lineup…

To deliver attractive BEVs to more customers, we must streamline the structure of the car, and―with a BEV-first mindset―we must drastically change the way we do business, from manufacturing to sales and service. Lexus will lead this transformation…

By listening to what cars have to say, and by controlling information to a higher, more integrated degree, we can increase the value of cars in a way that is tailored to each customer, such as by improving fuel efficiency, optimizing ride quality, and supporting safe driving.

According to storied automotive industry analyst Sandy Munro, the “elephant” Toyota should not be underestimated as he had seen it “turn the big boat around” and conquer a market it previously had no experience in many times. He is of the opinion that if Toyota really decides to focus on electric vehicle development, it can “crush you like a bug” and even catch up with the leaders in the field like Tesla in a few years.

The upcoming Toyota CEO Koji Sato announced just such an electrification push today, along with the new management structure that will be tasked with achieving it, while pledging to preserve Toyota’s unrivaled production quality as its most important asset. Besides electrification, Toyota will bet on vehicle intelligence and interactivity, as well as diversification in the sense that the company will have different options for different markets and offer purely battery-powered vehicles only where it makes sense.

“The energy situation varies around the world. We want to stay in tune with customers around the world and provide diverse options,” he added, in sync with departing CEO Toyoda’s opinion that hybrids and plug-ins have an important role to play in the transition to clean energy, as there are many places with non-existent charging infrastructure still. 

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Daniel Zlatev – Tech Writer – 591 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.