Toyota is working on a new platform that is fully focused on the European market. It concerns a basis that must provide a foothold for cars with hybrid, plug-in hybrid, but also with fully electric powertrains.
Toyota has a brand new platform in its development rooms that it is preparing purely for the European market. The new platform is called E3, Automotive News reports based on statements by none other than Matt Harrison, CEO of Toyota Motor Europe.
The E3 platform is intended for both hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars and is even suitable for cars with an all-electric powertrain. Toyota will therefore also carry electric versions of models that are also available with combustion engines. The brand follows a similar EV strategy as Kia and Hyundai. Like those brands, Toyota will soon have cars developed primarily as EV on the e-TNGA platform, such as the bZ4X, and electric versions of models on the E3 platform that can also be combined with hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology. fall.
The E3 platform, according to Automotive News, is built from technology from both the fully EV-focused e-TNGA platform and the mid-sized GA-C base that you currently find among cars such as the C-HR, Corolla, Prius, the new Corolla Cross and even below the Lexus UX. The name ‘E3’ would stand for ‘Emotion, Engagement and Energy’.
The electrification strategy aligns with Toyota’s view that the road to carbon neutrality cannot be paved all over the world by immediately switching to supplying only electric cars. The E3 platform will be deployed at Toyota’s plants in the UK and Turkey. The first models on the new base should be produced in the second half of this decade. Toyota aims to have electric cars make up about 50 percent of its sales mix in Western Europe by 2030. Toyota must be emission-free in Western Europe by 2035. The brand aims to use both EV and hydrogen technology.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl