Toyota to launch five new BEVs by 2026, but none scheduled for Australia

Toyota, Australia’s best-selling vehicle brand, has announced five more battery EV models by 2026 in Europe. The goal is to have sales of their EV models make up 50% of the sales by 2030 and be selling only EVs by 2040.

These announcements were made as part of Toyota’s annual Kenshiki Forum where Toyota laid out a more comprehensive EV strategy by introducing, or let’s just say teasing, the five new bZ (beyond Zero) models.

Toyota’s Europe president and CEO Matt Harrison shared Toyota Europe’s path to EVs:

“Broadly speaking, there are two key focus areas: the first is carbon neutrality and how we plan to achieve it in areas of our business, and the second, as we transition for a manufacturing and sales company to a provider of mobility services, is the future of mobility.”

The new strategy also covers five more models which start with a small EV next year according to Harrison. There have also been reports by Automotive News that the first EV may be an SUV, but this wasn’t confirmed in this forum.

Harrison said the five new bZ models showed a “clear commitment to battery electric vehicles.”

Toyota’s bZ lineup is expected to expand to other form factors too including smaller and mid-size SUVs over the next three years according to what the company has laid out as part of this strategy.

That’s after a lack of sales of its current battery-electric SUV, the bZ4X which was not allowed to be sold for many months this year due to wheels falling off the vehicle.

Sales of this EV resumed in October but were struck by another controversy around the range with the company launching an internal investigation around the EV’s range short-falls.

In China, Toyota has launched the bZ3 small sedan model in partnership with the world’s largest NEV maker, BYD. This is also to keep up with the rapid growth in China’s EV market and to meet customer expectations as they start to consider other local EV manufacturers instead.

In Australia, the plans for a pure battery EV from Toyota have been uncertain. Its focus has been on the mild hybrid market, and its efforts on zero-emission vehicles has been on “Hydrogen” technologies which haven’t gained much traction.

According to FCAI vFacts, Toyota has only sold 12 Toyota Mirai BEVs in 2022.

With this new strategy focusing purely on Europe, it’s unlikely that Australia will see many battery EVs from Toyota anytime soon. The earlier that has been mooted is late 2023, but there is still no clear answer. The Driven sought comment from Toyota Australia and is still awaiting a response.