Carmaker Toyota has reportedly had a change of heart, scrapping its existing electronic vehicle (EV) production plans and rethinking the whole project.
If a new report is correct, Toyota is in the middle of a massive reworking of its EV plans that will see the company go back to the drawing board. It's thought that Toyota miscalculated demand for electric cars, a mistake that now means that it is poorly placed to deal with customer requirements and an ever-more competitive landscape. With EV-first companies like Tesla and traditional carmakers deep in the world of electrified cars, Toyota is making changes to its own plans that will see some cars delayed and new roadmaps formulated.
That's according to four unnamed sources speaking with Reuters, at least. The Japanese carmaker is already in the middle of a $38 billion EV rollout, having only announced it last year. But the report claims that "a working group within Toyota has been charged with outlining plans by early next year for improvements to its existing EV platform or for a new architecture".
The report goes on to say that Toyota hadn't expected the demand for EVs to take off for a number of decades. But in reality, it's already happening. Carmakers reportedly expect EV sales to make up more than half the global car maker by 2030, meaning Toyota is very much playing catchup.
Reuters points to Tesla as the benchmark that Toyota is now working to, with executives and engineers aware that its current production plans of using the same lines for EV and combustion engine-powered cars isn't going to work - especially when companies like Tesla don't have to worry about such things. The hope is that while the rethink will delay some cars, it will set Toyota up for a better EV lineup moving forward.
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