► Toyota’s electric car plans explained
► bZ model names is ditched for ‘familiar’ ones
► Hilux, RAV4 and Land Cruiser likely next EV candidates
Toyota has grand plans when it comes to electric cars, confirming that six EVs will be on sale by 2026. The first three have already been revealed or are already on sale, with the next three promising to cater more to active lifestyles.
Toyota aims to sell 3.5 million BEVs globally per year by the end of the decade, which is around 1.5 million more than the company manages today. As a result, BEVs will also make up a larger percentage of the brand’s total 10 million yearly vehicle sales.
Then-president Akio Toyoda said his firm will plough 4 trillion yen (around £24 billion) into electric vehicles and next-generation batteries between 2023 and 2030 – and that a similar sum will be dumped into hybrid, hydrogen and other powertrain technologies. He wants Toyota’s manufacturing plants to be completely carbon neutral by 2035, too.
What are Toyota’s current EVs in Europe?
Urban Cruiser
Let’s go from smallest to biggest. The Toyota Urban Cruiser is a small, ‘B-segment’ electric SUV designed to tackle one of the most competitive markets. The baby crossover takes on the Ford Puma Gen-E, Vauxhall Mokka Electric, Peugeot e-2008 to name just three rivals.
The Urban Cruiser has been jointly developed with Suzuki, which has made its own e-Vitara on the same platform. Both of these cars use the same tech, share the same interior and look very close to one another. An LFP battery and a dinky e-motor is used here to save costs.
C-HR+
The first model (according to Toyota, anyway – we’d argue the Urban Cruiser was the first) to kick off Toyota’s strategy of naming its EVs with more familiar terms, with an added ‘+’. This is completely different underneath to the ‘regular’ C-HR that’s available as a hybrid and PHEV, with Toyota targeting more than 370 miles on a charge in its rangiest version.
bZ4X
The first proper global production electric car from Toyota, which had a bit of a wobbly start with iffy efficiency dogging it in the early years. It has been updated as of early 2025, with new batteries offering greater range and promising a much improved miles per kWh figure.
What are Toyota’s plans for future electric cars?
The brand says it wants six electric cars in Europe by the end of 2026, with Yoshihiro Nakata – Toyota Europe’s president and CEO – showing an image that includes silhouettes of future electric cars. ‘Can you guess what they might be?’ he smiles during Toyota’s 2025 media forum.
Yes. In fact, we’re pretty sure exactly what these three silhouettes are. And, given Toyota’s new strategy to give its EVs ‘familiar and existing’ nameplates (rather than the ill-advised ‘bZ’ nomenclature), we’re pretty sure what they’ll be called, too.
‘With the following three [after bZ4X, Urban Cruiser and C-HR+], you see the next stage of our strategy,’ says Nakata (pictured above). ‘Following the pandemic, customers have become ever more focused recreational activities, and that will become an ever more accepted part of life. These cars will focus on enhancing customer lifestyles, just as powerfully they will enhance our carbon neutrality goals.’
First of the silhouettes, then, is almost certainly an electric RAV4, given the boxy styling. Given the RAV4 is already larger than a bZ4X, this will almost certainly be on the cards to appeal to larger families – perhaps even offering a seven-seat option.
The central silhouette is even more obvious: a pickup. That means Toyota’s Hilux will eventually benefit from a battery-electric version. For now, at least, that’s a relative rarity in the pick-up space in the European market, aside from left-field alternatives like the Maxus T90 EV and e-Terron 9. Toyota previewed an electric pickup with the EPU concept in 2023.
Third and final will be a more road-focused Land Crusier EV. Toyota has already previewed an electric Land Cruiser model with the Land Cruiser Se concept, which shows the Land Cruiser in a super futuristic and much sleeker capacity than ever before. When the Se concept was revealed, Toyota said that ‘The quietness of the BEV powertrain helps create a comfortable cabin environment when driving on-road,’ while the use of a ‘monocoque body gives highly responsive handling and confidence when tackling tough terrain.’ Monocoque hints at something more road-biased, compared to the body-on-frame structures of normal Land Cruisers.
Given the new naming strategy, it is likely that these electric models could be named RAV4+, Hilux+ and Land Cruiser+.
Where’s GR in all this?
Our first look at a performance EV came in the shape of the FT-Se concept. According to the brand, the concept is designed as ‘a high-performance sports BEV model proposed as one of the options for sports cars in the carbon-neutral era.’ The FT-Se has been designed using expertise from the brand’s Gazoo Racing division, and its diminutive size implies dimensions like both the GR86 and MR-2.
The brand has also implied that software updates to the car could enhance its performance. CEO Koji Sato has also mentioned Toyota’s developments regarding a ‘manual’ gearshift for electric cars, designed to introduce more involvement into the process.
What about Toyota’s hybrids?
Those old things? We jest, of course – they’re still going strong and seemingly are going nowhere. ‘Self-charging’ hybrids have been the bedrock of Toyota since the original Prius that was launched in the late 1990s. They’re still selling well today, which means Toyota is continuing to evolve the technology.
Those hybrid models broadly cover the smaller and lower end of Toyota’s model range; namely the Yaris, Yaris Cross, Corolla and C-HR.
Then there are the plug-in hybrids, a powertrain which has slowly expanded across Toyota’s range. The C-HR also features a PHEV option for better e-range, while the RAV4 is now PHEV-only in the UK market. The other biggie is the Prius, which made its return to the UK in 2024.
What about hydrogen and e-fuels?
This is all part of Toyota’s grand plan. Multi-fuel and, according to the company, leaving no one behind.
Toyota has dabbled with the hydrogen fuel cell since it launched the first-generation Mirai in 2014. Since then, the brand has done a lot to improve the technology – the company even showcased a portable hydrogen cartridge prototype in June 2022 that can power small-scale hydrogen fuel cells in everything from homes and appliances to motorbikes and cars.
If that wasn’t enough, Toyota is also designing internal combustion engines that can run on pure hydrogen. The brand already has a prototype GR Yaris rally car, powered by a modified version of Toyota’s 1.6-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. It produces almost no tailpipe emissions (most of the gas coming out of the exhaust is water vapour), but it sounds and feels like a petrol car to drive.
That said, and more recently, Toyota has pivoted more to focus on heavy goods vehicles when it comes to hydrogen fuel cells. It’s taking part in an initiative across Europe to install hydrogen fuel stations every 200km on major routes across several European countries, for example.