Toyota said that cars running on conventional engines will have virtually disappeared by 2050.
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It also comes as the automotive industry grapples with meeting tough emissions regulations and scrutinizes diesel technology after Volkswagen admitted it cheated on certain emissions tests.
Toyota isn’t quitting gasoline and diesel engines entirely. Previously, Volkswagen had said it planned to roll out 20 electric and plug- in hybrid cars by 2020.
Hybrids switch back and forth between a gasoline engine and an electric motor to deliver an efficient ride.
Such a massive shift in technology won’t happen quickly. About 14 per cent of the cars and trucks it sold worldwide a year ago were hybrid or plug-in autos.
Fuel cells run on hydrogen and are zero-emissions. Rival Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf electric auto has an average range of 84 miles with a fully charged battery, while USA startup Tesla Motors Inc.’s Model S electric vehicle has a range of 230-270 miles. The maker of the Volt plug-in hybrid has targeted putting 500,000 vehicles on the road in the U.S. that are at least partially electric by 2017, from 180,834 previous year.
Yet for now, Toyota is still highly reliant on gasoline- and diesel-powered cars.
By the end of this year, Toyota will begin Japan sales of the Prius hybrid after its first redesign in nearly seven years. Most of the remaining sales were vehicles powered by gasoline and a few diesel, though a detailed breakdown wasn’t available. Toyota is promising to develop a hybrid version in every category, including gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles, as well as luxury models. It ultimately hopes to take that to a 90% reduction by 2050, the auto maker said.
It says annual sales of hybrid vehicles will reach 1.5 million so by 2020 Toyota would have sold 15 million hybrid vehicles, almost twice what it has sold so far around the world.
Toyota Motor Corp. said on Wednesday it aimed to sell more than 30,000 fuel cell vehicles around or after 2020, and that it would use renewable energy and hydrogen-based production methods at its factories to completely eliminate Carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
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The Toyota Prius, which went on sale in 1997, is the top-selling hybrid, with about 4 million sold globally so far.
