Toyota expects to only supply emission-free cars in Western Europe by 2035

Toyota’s European branch expects to only supply zero-emission cars in Western Europe by 2035. This year does depend on the charging and hydrogen infrastructure. The company expects that half of all cars sold will be zero-emissions by the end of this decade.

The manufacturer does not see 2035 as a hard deadline whereby it will definitely no longer sell emission-free cars after that time. Instead, Toyota only expresses the expectation that the company will then be able to supply only emission-free cars. According to the manufacturer, whether the company will actually only sell emission-free cars by 2035 depends, among other things, on the infrastructure. For example, there must be enough charging options and hydrogen filling stations. In addition, there must be enough renewable energy to supply all cars with the necessary energy, says Toyota

By 2030, at least half of Toyota’s new sales will consist of zero-emission cars, the company further expects. The manufacturer thinks it will also be able to supply more emission-free cars around that time, if customer demand exceeds that fifty percent. To facilitate this, Toyota plans to introduce more ‘affordable and practical’ zero-emission cars in the coming years. In addition, the manufacturer wants to invest extra in developing batteries.

Batteries

For example, the commercial production of Toyota’s bipolar NiMh batteries has recently started. Mainly used in hybrid cars, these batteries use less raw materials and are cheaper than regular NiMh batteries while they can deliver twice as much energy. Toyota wants to apply ‘similar techniques’ to lithium-ion batteries, so that, together with more efficient cars, the costs for batteries can be halved without this at the expense of the range. The manufacturer expects to be able to achieve this in the second half of this decade.

Toyota also discusses solid-state batteries; these are likely to be used in hybrid cars first. Only later does Toyota think it will be used for fully electric cars, without mentioning a year. These solid-state batteries should offer more range and shorter charging times.

Emission-free

What is striking about the message is that Toyota does not talk about electric cars, but uses the term emission-free. Toyota sells both battery and hydrogen-electric cars, but is also experimenting with cars that have a combustion engine and use hydrogen.

Earlier this week, the company showed a Toyota GR Yaris with a modified combustion engine that uses hydrogen. This results in an internal combustion engine ‘virtually without emissions’, while the car has the sound and ‘driving experience’ of an internal combustion engine. It’s unclear why Toyota says the modified car will run “virtually zero emissions”; for example, the combustion engine may still need oil and the car will therefore not be completely emission-free.

Toyota tells Autocar that it sees the hydrogen combustion engine as an interesting concept, because it may enable cheap, virtually emission-free cars. After all, manufacturers only have to modify a regular car with an internal combustion engine, which means that in theory these cars could share many components, which reduces costs. The manufacturer emphasizes that the converted GR Yaris is still a concept and that the hydrogen combustion engine is now being tested in motorsport. It is therefore not clear whether the company actually wants to sell commercial cars with a hydrogen combustion engine.

Toyota’s hydrogen combustion engine