Toyota Ramps Up Commitment to Electrification with U.S. BEV Production and Additional Battery Plant Investment, pressroom.Toyota.com, May, 2023"Advancing its commitment to vehicle electrification and building where it sells, Toyota will assemble an all-new, three-row, battery electric SUV at Toyota Kentucky starting in 2025. The company’s first U.S.-assembled BEV will be powered by batteries from Toyota North Carolina. The new battery plant, which is currently under construction, will receive an additional $2.1 billion investment to support the company’s drive toward carbon neutrality.
Today’s announcement confirms that Toyota Kentucky will lead the company’s vehicle carbon reduction efforts with its first U.S.–assembled BEV, a 3-row SUV."
Toyota will do BEV for the American and Euro markets. But Toyota has a new CEO who has commented in March that he thinks hydrogen is the way forward. Hydrogen is not an energy source, but an energy carrier. So the million dollar question for Toyota is how will they make hydrogen cheaper than batteries? One possibility is a new generation of nuclear power plants. Electrolysis gets an efficiency boost with superheated steam. Something a next gen nuclear plant can be built to do.
My opinion is that given the inherent insane costs of transitioning to a fully electric fleet, I think the CEO of Toyotoa is correct. In any event, oil isn’t going anywhere for the next several decades.