Toyota Eyes EV Mass Production

Nagoya, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> plans to be ready for mass production of electric vehicles in 2020 to cope with greenhouse gas emission regulations that have been becoming tougher worldwide, informed sources said Monday. The leading Japanese automaker will set up an in-house organization in January to step up the development of electric vehicles, the sources said. In particular, Toyota intends to accelerate the development of high-performance batteries that enable vehicles to travel much longer distances than existing electric motor-driven models, they said, adding a joint project with alliance partner Mazda Motor Corp. <7261> is eyed. Toyota has been focusing on hybrid and fuel cell technologies in its efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gasses. But the company now thinks it necessary to expand output of electric vehicles along with fuel cell vehicles that run on hydrogen gas, both emit no greenhouse gases, in view of moves to toughen emission standards in various parts of the world. In California, a major auto market, gasoline-electric hybrids will not be regarded as eco-friendly vehicles from 2018 models. Toyota, which has launched only one electric vehicle model in the U.S. market, finds expanding the electric vehicle lienup is particularly important, given the slow development of infrastructure for fuel cell vehicles, such as a hydrogen station network, the sources said. END