Toyota Premieres Toyota-brand Battery Electric Vehicles Ahead of 2020 China Launch

Shanghai, China, April 16, 2019―Toyota announces that today the company premiered its C-HR and IZOA battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as part of its activities on the opening day of Auto Shanghai 2019. The C-HR and IZOA will be the first BEVs to launch in China under the Toyota brand. Sales on the new models are slated to start from 2020.

Additionally, Toyota's other booth exhibits at the show include a variety of electrified vehicles, such as the debut of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) variants for the RAV4 and the Alphard/Vellfire in China, as well as the Corolla and Levin plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) series that were launched in March 2019. Toyota also showed the RHOMBUS, a battery electric vehicle concept car developed by TMEC^*, Toyota's base for R&D in China. The RHOMBUS aims to suit the values and lifestyles of drivers born after 1990.

Commenting on fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), Toyota Executive Vice President Moritaka Yoshida stated, "Since 2017, Toyota has been conducting demonstration tests with the Mirai in China. We are considering the local introduction of other fuel cell vehicles such as the FC Coaster."

Beginning with the China debut of the electrified C-HR and IZOA vehicle models, Toyota plans to roll out more than ten BEV models globally during the first half of the 2020s, and is moving steadily forward to popularize electrified vehicles, setting a sales target of more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles globally by 2030.

As of the end of February 2019, Toyota has sold nearly 13 million electrified vehicles worldwide since the initial launch of Prius, a hybrid electric vehicle, in 1997. The volume of vehicles represents a reduction in global CO2 emissions of more than 103 million tons.

In November 2018, at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Toyota proposed a new mobility concept that aims to support peoples' lives through leveraging electrification, intelligence, and informatization, such as with the e-Pallete.

Toyota has plans to use the new mobility concept for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. Furthermore, the company also plans to endeavor to make the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 a success by utilizing the knowledge it gains from the Tokyo 2020 Games and working in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, and the Organising Committee of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and Paralympic Games.