Toyota rejected big battery electric cars, but will soon launch a PHEV with over 200 km of electric range

Toyota is a car manufacturer that often finds itself at odds with its own ideas. Of course, he is not the only one, like Volkswagen , who criticizes synthetic fuels while developing them via Porsche . However, Toyota is known for not hiding its contradictions.

Historically, Toyota has been very critical of electric cars, preferring hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles. They believe that the latter are not the only solution to the problem of carbon-free mobility and that using large batteries is an ecological, economic and practical aberration.

Although the first generation of the Nissan Leaf offered a range of 200 km a few years ago, Toyota does not hesitate to offer several electric cars in its current and future range, as well as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) with a range 200 km in electric mode. However, to achieve this autonomy, it will inevitably require a relatively large battery.

Recently, Toyota revamped its product roadmap to focus on battery electric vehicles, producing four electric models in the process: the Toyota bZ4X and bZ3X , as well as the Lexus UX 300e and RZ 450e .

During his first public briefing as new CEO, Koji Sato said Toyota will expand its range of battery electric vehicles, an important category in the coming years. The group aims to market at least 10 new electric models by 2026 and sell 1.5 million electric units worldwide. In addition, Toyota will not neglect hybrids, which remain one of its strengths, but will evolve them into PHEVs offering great autonomy.

However, the crucial unknown remains how Toyota will manage to produce a PHEV offering more than 200 km of range.

Hiroki Nakajima , executive vice president of Toyota, announced that the company was working on a new generation of plug-in hybrids capable of traveling at least 200 kilometers on a single battery charge.

The question is not so much which approval cycle they will use to measure this range ( WLTP or EPA ), but rather how they will achieve this goal. Currently, a 100% electric car requires a battery of at least 35 kWh to travel 200 km in the WLTP cycle, as is the case for the Mazda MX-30 . However, for a real range of 200 km, a capacity of around 40 kWh is necessary.

The battery capacity of a plug-in hybrid car can exceed 50 kWh to support the weight of the petrol engine and transmission, while the Mercedes C 300e has a 25.4 kWh battery that allows it to travel up to 115 km in electric mode.

More efficient solutions, such as a range-extended series hybrid, are available, such as the Mazda MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV or the older Opel Ampera . According to Nakajima , by increasing battery efficiency to extend range in EV mode, PHEVs could be repositioned as "the convenient electric" and developed as another battery-electric option.

However, PHEVs could face difficulties in some countries, such as Japan, the United Kingdom or the European Union, where the ban on the sale of cars with internal combustion engines will come into force from 2030 (and 2035 for the EU). Although it is still possible to use e-fuel in Europe.