Toyota has been a noted straggler in battery electric vehicle development. The brand has been openly skeptical at times, held a candle for hydrogen longer than other manufacturers and is only now launching its first electric car, the bZ4x. But that is about to change. Toyota held a media briefing in Japan on its battery-electric vehicle strategy early this morning, where they unveiled — at least in fiberglass mockup form — a shocking lineup of no less than 16 electric vehicles.
One of those new vehicles is an electric pickup truck. Toyota had promised it was working on an electric pickup truck, and the creatively named "Pickup EV" concept appears to be at least an early version of it. Bearing stubby off-road tires, it looks like an electric Tacoma — though it's not clear from the pictures where it would fit in size-wise between the Tacoma and Tundra.
Toyota also appears to be adding another off-roader, the Compact Cruiser EV. It looks like a compact nod to the FJ Cruiser and original Land Cruiser, with its bright blue paint, roof rack and red tow hooks. There's no EV analog to the 4Runner shown, but Toyota noted it plans to add 30 EVs by 2030 — and some will be electric versions of existing models.
Lexus also announced ambitious EV plans. The brand plans to have a full lineup of electric vehicles and be 100 percent electric in Europe, North America and China by 2030 and 100 percent globally by 2035. The most exciting of those new Lexus vehicles will be a "next-generation battery EV sports car" (seen above) that inherits the "secret sauce" of the LFA's performance.
We should caution that these mockups aren't actual electric vehicles yet. Toyota may need to make some technological advancements to get them on the road. And the production models may end up looking different. That said, this is a clear statement of intent from Toyota. And we couldn't be more excited about it's what coming down the pipeline.
