Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. is planning to invest $35 billion U.S. to rollout 30 new electric vehicles by the year 2030.
Toyota says it also plans to increase global sales of battery-powered electric vehicles by 3.5 million units a year by the end of the decade.
Most of Toyota’s current electric vehicle sales are hybrid electric cars that are powered by a combination of an internal combustion engine and battery-operated electric motors. Battery-only electric vehicles only make up a fraction of its current sales.
Toyota, one of the world’s biggest automakers, will increase new investments into battery technologies by $4.4 billion U.S., according to Toyota. It will be part of Toyota’s broader investment into electric vehicles and will include both capital expenditure as well as research and development.
Toyota says it also plans to invest in other types of electric vehicles, including hybrid cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell electric vehicles, which use hydrogen as a power source.
For its luxury brand Lexus, Toyota aims to have electric vehicles account for 100% of vehicle sales in Europe, North America, and China by 2030 and globally by 2035.
Despite being one of the pioneers of hybrid models, Toyota has been relatively slow in its push toward fully electric vehicles compared to some of its global competitors such as General Motors and Ford.
Last month, at the U.N. climate conference held in Scotland, Toyota declined to join a group of six major carmakers, including Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, to sign a declaration to phase out fossil fuels by 2040.
