The auto-manufacturer is going all in on EVs. Photo: Vincent Guth
In the tenth grade, I remember my history teacher was out sick one day. To make the substitute’s life a little easier, and presumably his own, my teacher left explicit instructions to flip on a documentary and tell us to take notes. The documentary? A polemic 2006 film called Who Killed the Electric Car? It traces General Motors mid-90s foray into the world of EVs, a model aptly named EV1, and its sudden death.
As it happens, the death of the electric car was shortlived. Director Chris Paine has since released a sequel called Revenge of the Electric Car, and auto manufacturers worldwide are continuing to develop new EV models year after year.
In a press release on Monday, Toyota took an ambitious step, announcing their goal of having an EV or hybrid version of every vehicle in their lineup available by 2025. Who killed the electric car, indeed.
Additionally, by 2020 the auto manufacturer hopes to have 10 solely battery-powered models available.
“As a mass-market automaker, we need to expand our offering of electric cars,” Toyota executive vice president Shigeki Terashi said in a Tokyo press briefing. “To promote the wider use of EVs, we need to increase our technical development capabilities and address the societal impact of the technology.”
Toyota, of course, is just the latest major auto manufacturer to express its interest in aggressively expanding its EV lineup. And in the wake of additional news today that UPS has pre-ordered 125 of Tesla’s new electric semi-trucks, it would seem the push toward electric is full throttle.
