On July 4, in Tokyo, Toyota held its annual General Shareholders’ Meeting, with a good portion devoted to its electrification strategy.
Toyota’s newly established EV division, BEV Factory, attracted a lot of attention since the market has placed great expectations on BEVs as a vital choice for attaining carbon neutrality. All BEV development, production, and business activities are integrated under the new entity to “enable faster decision-making and execution.”
Additionally, the next-generation BEVs from the division are anticipated to account for 1.7 million of the 3.5 million BEVs Toyota aims to sell by 2030 when they first hit the market in 2026. Naturally, Takero Kato, president of BEV Factory, had to respond to several of the 11 shareholder questions.
Shareholders questioned whether Toyota could keep up with Tesla in light of the company’s announcement that it would increase its investment in battery plants and start producing BEVs in the U.S. in 2025.
Yoichi Miyazaki, the executive vice president of Toyota, and Gill Pratt, the company’s top scientist, both reaffirmed the company’s strategy of developing various powertrain solutions. Still, the director of Toyota’s BEV Factory responded more thoroughly and enthusiastically. He asserted, “I enjoy BEVs. I aim to transform how vehicles, production, and work will be done with BEVs. Cars come first. We want the BEV products we design and manufacture to reflect Toyota’s distinctive personality.”
It’s a fairly ambitious goal to match the 900-mile range of Toyota’s hybrids by 2028, but Kato said the company would also make substantial adjustments to production and the number of parts needed to build a car.
“Next, we wish to alter the design of our vehicles, cut the length of our production lines in half, and minimize or do away with physically demanding work to preserve Japanese production and make the workplace enjoyable for an older workforce.”
