Like many automakers, Toyota has had a slow introduction to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) compared to Tesla, only recently changing its approach to electrification. However, a new report shows that the Japanese company is now looking to accelerate into BEVs faster than initially planned, with an updated production target for the year after next.
Toyota has significantly changed its tune on the production of BEVs, with reports from earlier this year showing that the automaker planned to produce electric SUVs at volume by 2025. By the end of 2025, Toyota had said it hoped to reach a monthly BEV production of 10,000 units per month at a new plant in Kentucky, with hopes to build as many as 200,000 per year in the U.S. alone by 2026.
Now, a report from Nikkei Asia shared on Saturday shows that the automaker is looking to build over 600,000 BEVs globally by 2025, tripling the company’s earlier EV targets from both the Toyota and Lexus brands (via Automotive News). By 2026, Toyota hopes to sell 1.5 million BEVs per year and as many as 3.5 million annually by 2030.
In addition to the updated 2025 target, Toyota is looking to increase its BEV production volume to roughly 150,000 this year, gradually boosting it to 190,000 next year. Last year, Toyota sold under 25,000 BEVs, including those from the Lexus brand. By comparison, Tesla sold roughly 1.31 million BEVs globally in 2022.
The news comes after a Toyota executive said earlier this week that it was learning casting techniques from other manufacturers in the EV space. While Toyota didn’t specifically name Tesla, the BEV maker has been a pioneer in casting methods used for production, using giant casting machines it has dubbed “Giga Presses.”
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It also comes after Tesla outsold Toyota in California in the second quarter of this year, as BEV adoption continues to increase in regions throughout the world.
Toyota has shared criticism about an industry-wide shift to BEVs in the past, even lobbying against them in the U.S. Despite Toyota’s more recent shift toward BEVs with new CEO and former Lexus head Koji Sato, the company has said it still hopes to make hydrogen fuel technology its priority.
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