Toyota announced today that they will be unveiling a new all-electric SUV in the coming months.
The automaker, which has been seen as a lagger when it comes to all-electric vehicles, says that it’s their ‘first step’ for battery-electric vehicles.
Toyota has yet to launch an all-electric vehicle outside of China.
The Japanese automaker has been focused on hybrids and fuel cell vehicles and it has often talked down on battery-electric vehicles.
Last year, the company announced an acceleration of its electric vehicle plans and unveiled a few concepts that it plans to turn into production vehicles in the coming years.
Now we might finally get to see one of those soon.
Toyota announced a new midsize electric SUV today:
“Toyota announced today that it will preview a brand-new model for its European Battery Electric line-up – a mid-sized battery-electric SUV based on the forthcoming the e-TNGA platform.”
For now, they are only showing the silhouette (pictured above), but the automaker says that more details are coming in the next few months.
Toyota said that the new model is going to be based on its new e-TNGA electric platform:
The un-named preview model will be based on Toyota’s new e-TNGA platform. Thanks to its clever design the new platform is both highly versatile and easily adaptable for a range of product types.
They unveiled this image with the announcement – showing a dual motor all-wheel-drive powertrain and modular battery pack:
Koji Toyoshima, Deputy Chief Officer of Toyota’s ZEV Factory, commented on the announcement:
“Toyota will shortly take the next step in the rollout of its forthcoming battery-electric portfolio by first previewing an all-new mid-sized SUV in the coming months. The versatility and flexibility of e-TNGA technology allows us to design and create vehicles that are not just battery-electric, but also exciting to drive and beautiful to look at.”
The automaker confirmed that the vehicle is already being readied for production.
Electrek’s Take
It’s exciting that Toyota is finally going to produce a battery-electric vehicle built to be electric from the ground up.
We have been hammering the company for years on the fact that they are late to all-electric vehicles and wasting their money on fuel cell hydrogen for passenger vehicles.
The only thing that I’m concerned about is that this might be another compliance car since they only mentioned Europe.
We know that regulations are more aggressive in Europe forcing automakers to produce more EVs for the market.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
