Toyota will produce an all-electric version of the Toyota C-HR for the Chinese market from 2020.
UPDATED: Toyota launches China-only electric C-HR
Announced at the Beijing motor show, the zero-emissions crossover will follow two new versions of existing Toyota plug-in hybrids, the Corolla and Levin saloons, that are due in 2019.
Those cars are claimed to be capable of 30 miles in pure-electric mode.
The trio of newly announced plug-in cars are part of Toyota’s plans to introduce 10 electrified models by 2020. It follows the Chinese government’s requirement for a certain quota of a car brand’s sales to be electric.
Toyota will produce the electric motors, batteries and inverters for its plug-in Chinese models.
China’s demand for plug-in cars is so large that Toyota alone sold 140,000 electrified cars there last year. That figure represented 40% of all Toyota electrified car sales in that market to date.
To satisfy the increasing demand for its plug-in cars, Toyota plans to raise its production capacity for nickel-metal hydride battery modules to 220,000 units in 2020. It will also open a battery testing facility, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing, in China.
Toyota recently revealed that it is working to commercialise solid-state batteries by the early 2020s; if achieved, this would make it the first car maker to do so. The technology enables more energy to be stored than equivalent lithium-ion batteries and so is expected to be a game changer for electric vehicles.
More content:
Nissan Leaf scores five stars in toughest Euro NCAP crash test
Porsche 911 GT3 RS 2018 review
Join the debate
Add your comment
Outside Japan?
"They will be the first electrified Toyotas to be produced outside of Japan." Sam, I thought my Auris hybrid had been built in the UK?