Global automakers to accelerate electrified vehicle rollout

January 2, 2018

Tokyo- Major global automakers are poised to accelerate the rollout of electrified vehicles to comply with tougher restrictions on emissions worldwide.

Gasoline-electric hybrids, including plug-in models, are expected to replace gasoline-powered vehicles as mainstream passenger vehicles globally in the 2030s, industry officials said.

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. aims to release electrified versions for its entire passenger vehicle lineup by around 2025. German rival Volkswagen AG plans to do the same by 2030 at the latest.

Toyota plans to sell more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles globally in 2030, of which over one million will be hydrogen fuel-cell or pure electric vehicles. The remainder will be hybrids or plug-in hybrids.

Volkswagen plans to introduce 50 electric and 30 plug-in hybrid models by 2025. The company expects to sell up to three million electric vehicles in 2025.

The alliance of Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. estimates that 30 percent of the 14 million vehicles that it projects to sell globally in 2022 will be electric, hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Electric vehicles are more expensive than vehicles solely powered by internal combustion engines because of high prices for batteries, a key component.

Sales of electric vehicles are expected to gain momentum, probably starting in the mid-2020s, after their prices fall to affordable levels, analysts said.

But the sales volume of electric vehicles is unlikely to reach the combined level of hybrids and plug-in hybrids even in the 2030s, they said.

The spread of electric vehicles depends on improvements in the performance of batteries, boosting their ranges.

A next-generation all solid-state battery that Toyota and Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp. plan jointly to develop is expected to improve battery performance substantially.

An all solid-state battery is known to be safer, with higher power output and shorter charging times than the lithium-ion batteries that are currently available.

Volkswagen is also working on all solid-state battery technology, while Nissan is conducting research on it. Jiji Press