At its annual State of the Motoring Industry address, Toyota South Africa Motors shared its roadmap for its electric vehicle plans and gave the media a sneak peek of its EVs heading to SA next year.

Toyota

Toyota EVs – Beyond Zero

Toyota’s EVs will fall under the sub-brand “Beyond Zero” and its first EV, the bZ4X, will be here sometime next year, whereas the Lexus RZ will launch in January next year. Both will be second-generation models.

Andrew Kirby, CEO of Toyota SA, says the company hopes to sell 1.5 million battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) globally by 2026, as part of its milestone to sell 3.5 million EVs by 2030, from a projected 30 BEV model line-up in the future.

He added that Lexus would become a 100% BEV company in China, Europe and North America by 2030, and in the rest of the world, including South Africa, by 2035.

Kirby says Toyota is looking at a range of different breakthroughs regarding battery technology, and by 2026, we will see significant enhancements in the range, capacity for charging speeds, size of the batteries and cost.

Kirby says: There are a number of different chemical compositions that we will be commercialising in the next few years, and from 2026 onwards, we’re going to see a range of next-generation battery electric vehicles being made available all over the world, including South Africa.

This impacts not only BEVs, but also hybrids and plug-in hybrids, adds Kirby. “We’ll see significant advances in the range of those vehicles, and they will become a lot more compelling in the future.”

Kirby adds: Solid state [batteries] will be a very interesting product for us; at the moment it is showing a lot of promise and will be commercialised around 2027 and 2028.

TSAM has eleven new energy vehicles (NEVs) on its local line-up, which includes hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and will expand the portfolio by four in 2024, and a further eight in 2025.

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The Lexus RZ will launch in SA in January 2025