Photo/Illutration The car platform for Toyota Motor Corp.’s electric vehicle bZ4X (Provided by Toyota Motor Corp.)

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to radically shift gear in how it manufactures electric vehicles by developing an EV-only platform to cut costs, raise production efficiency and competitiveness.

Its strategy clearly aims to put the company in direct competition with EV industry leader Tesla.

Toyota is moving to mass-produce EVs in anticipation that consumer demand for electric vehicles will soon rapidly increase, given recent price surges at the pump.

The nuts and bolts of the car design come down to a car platform upon which the engine, motor and transmission are mounted. The setup determines a car’s driving performance and cost competitiveness.

But development costs are high.

For this reason, auto manufacturers use the same type of car platform for multiple models.

Last year, Toyota introduced the bZ4X, its first EV-only model based on a dedicated platform.

Toyota intended to use the same platform for other EV models in the future.

However, the platform for the bZ4X shares characteristics with those used for gasoline-fueled or hybrid cars.

As a result, it has a complicated shape, with uneven surfaces where the engine block can be mounted.

The platform currently in use has parts that are wholly unnecessary for electric vehicles.

As a result, manufacturing costs are higher than those for Tesla’s EV-only car platform.

Toyota decided it could not generate decent profits with electric vehicles or compete with Tesla if it kept using the car platform.

So, it decided to design a new one from scratch.

The new EV-only platform will be flat like a skateboard, as no engine will be mounted directly on to it.

It will be ideal to mass-produce EVs, reducing costs in the process.

A flat surface allows designers more choice on where to mount the batteries, compared with the car platform for the bZ4X.

Toyota has yet to decide when it will launch an electric vehicle using the new car platform. But based on anticipated demand, it expects it will be between 2027 and 2028.

Toyota is forecast to top the world ranking of new car sales in 2022.

However, it doesn’t even rank in the top 10 of global electric vehicle market share.

Automakers in the United States, China and Europe dominate the top positions, with Tesla in first place and China’s BYD in No. 2 spot.

At the end of 2021, Toyota announced it will market 30 electric models in 2030 and projected annual global sales of 3.5 million electric vehicles by the same year.

Its new car platform forms part of the strategy to achieve those goals.

In the interim, Toyota will accelerate the production and development of electric vehicles until it completes the new EV-only car platform.

It currently manufactures the bZ4X at its Motomachi factory in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.

The company is moving to increase the model’s output in 2025 by building a production line dedicated to manufacturing the bZ4X at its Takaoka factory, also located in the same city.

Company officials said Toyota will increase production of the bZ4X mainly to export to North America.

(This article was written by Takeshi Narabe and Eisuke Eguchi.)



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