05
December
2022
|
15:07
Europe/Amsterdam

Toyota Motor Europe on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040

Summary
  •  Toyota Motor Europe outlines path to full carbon neutrality by 2040
  •  Reveals of new battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric concepts previews expansion of Toyota and Lexus line-ups
  •  Toyota to start European battery assembly to supply its new C-HR plug-in hybrid vehicle
  •  Woven Planet shared Toyota’s ‘software-defined development’ approach to accelerate the development of electrified vehicles and provided further insights on Woven City, a ‘test track for mobility’
  •  TME’s market share increases to a record 7.3% in 2022, +0.9% points year-on-year, as Toyota consolidates its position #2 best-selling car brand in Europe

At Toyota Motor Europe’s (TME)  annual Kenshiki event last week, a team of the company’s Global and European executives shared the company’s latest developments outlining its vision, technology strategy and revealing its latest products and services. Kenshiki means insight in Japanese and this year’s edition to an audience of over 250 media, focussed on carbon neutrality, and the ongoing transformation to a mobility provider.

Full Carbon Neutrality by 2040

Toyota Motor Europe announced its commitment to achieve full carbon neutrality in Europe by latest 2040.

Building on its undertaking last year to achieve 100% COreduction in all new vehicles in the EU, UK and EFTA by 2035, TME’s direction was summarised by Matt Harrison, President & CEO of Toyota Motor Europe.

 

Broadly speaking, there are two key focus areas: the first is carbon neutrality and how we plan to achieve it in areas of our business, and the second, as we transition from a manufacturing and sales company to a provider of mobility services, is the future of mobility.

Matt Harrison, President & CEO of Toyota Motor Europe

Marvin Cooke, EVP Manufacturing of Toyota Motor Europe, further outlined the company’s objective of making all its European manufacturing facilities carbon neutral by 2030. In this area, the company’s approach is multi-faceted, minimising energy consumption wherever possible, switching to green energy and implementing numerous kaizen innovations which reduce CO2 or eliminate it entirely. 

 

“At our engine plant in Deeside in the UK we have installed solar panels equivalent to 10 football pitches to give us a good supply of zero emission electricity, and we’re collaborating with a local company to process more than 90% of our waste to generate biogas which will be used to produce green electricity and biomethane. This approach is working well and we expect to be carbon neutral as early as 2025. Towards 2040 for those activities outside of TME’s direct control, such as upstream supply and logistics, it’s a much bigger challenge and one we will achieve in close collaboration with our partners and suppliers.”

Marvin Cooke, EVP Manufacturing of Toyota Motor Europe

'The power of And’  - the science behind Toyota’s multi-technology strategy

Dr Gill Pratt, Chief Scientist of Toyota Motor Corporation and CEO of Toyota Research Institute provided practical insights into the hard science behind Toyota’s global approach to decarbonisation which utilises multiple electrified technologies to maximise carbon reduction by optimising the use of scarce resources. Toyota’s multi-technology strategy recognises the complementary benefits of both battery powered vehicles and those which run on hydrogen for zero emission mobility. Owing to the current short supply and high costs of battery materials and lack of infrastructure, it is better to use a combination of battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric and hybrid electric vehicles to reduce COemissions over the next 10-15 years:

We must do what is best for the environment, which is to extract the most carbon reduction from each battery cell produced, replacing as many non-electrified vehicles as possible with electrified ones, guided by the simple principle that carbon is the enemy, not a particular powertrain.

Dr Gill Pratt, Chief Scientist of Toyota Motor Corporation and CEO of Toyota Research Institute

Toyota’s global strategy relates closely to meeting the diverse needs of its European customers with a line-up which includes battery electric and fuel-cell and hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, as further explained by Kylie Jimenez, SVP – People, Technology & Corporate Affairs, Toyota Motor Europe,

We call this the ‘power of And’ because rarely does one size fit all, especially when you consider the diversity of customer needs and infrastructure readiness.

Kylie Jimenez, SVP – People, Technology & Corporate Affairs, Toyota Motor Europe

Product Power of TME’s Electrified Line-up Driving Growth

TME expects to sell around 1.1M vehicles in 2022, a small but important increase year-on-year in a European market which was down by -12%, and setting a new record market share of 7.3% up by +0.9% points year-on-year.

This momentum is driven by the product power of TME’s diverse electrified model range commanding an overall European mix of around 66% of total sales.

Woven Planet: Mobility to Love, Safety to Live

In its first presentation to European media, Woven Planet’s Dr James Kuffner explained its unique role in Toyota’s transition to a mobility company. Woven Planet’s mission statement of ‘Mobility to love, safety to live’.

We are creating new software platforms and tools, processes and a culture shift to software-defined development for Toyota. This will improve productivity by delivering software that allows for scalability and the reuse of code across hundreds of Toyota and Lexus models

Dr James Kuffner, CEO of Woven Planet Holdings & Chief Digital Officer of TMC

Woven Planet’s vision embraces three types of mobility – Mobility of People, Mobility of Goods and Mobility of Information, and this guides its key focus areas:

1.     Arene (‘software-defined development’) –provides true state-of-the-art mobility programming as the basis for next generation vehicles. Notably,  the ‘Arene’ software platform will provide the foundation for implementing Toyota’s Software Defined Architecture (SDA).  We are building TPS (Toyota Production System) for software that allows the delivery of safe, high quality software on top of our high quality hardware.

2.     Automated Driving & Advanced  Driver Assistance System (ADADAS), responsible for Toyota Teammate and Lexus Teammate ‘Advanced Drive’ technology. In keeping with Toyota’s ‘Guardian’  approach to ADAS, it includes the continuous development of an array for enhanced safety and automated driving systems.

3.    Woven City – Dr Kuffner provided further insights into the role of Woven City, currently under construction near Mt Fuji, Japan. When completed Woven City aspires to become a unique proving ground to accelerate innovation and deliver the world’s future mobility at scale. As a test track it will speed the development of mobility technology,  food and agriculture, clean energy and healthy living all powered by software with security and privacy built-in to its design.               

A series of Kenshiki product and technology deep dives followed the main meeting:

·       New Lexus RZ450e battery electric SUV and Lexus Electrified Sport

·       bZ Compact SUV Concept battery electric, one of 6 bZ BEVs developed on the e-TNGA platform which will be available in Europe

·       C-HR prologue: The Bold Becomes Bolder - European premiere of the new Toyota C-HR prologue indicating the styling of the next generation C-HR.

·       All new Prius plug-in hybrid

·       Woven Planet Deep Dive

Note to editors:

Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA (TME) oversees the wholesale sales and marketing of Toyota, GR (Gazoo Racing) and Lexus vehicles and parts and accessories, as well as Toyota’s European manufacturing and engineering operations. Toyota directly employs over 25,000 people and has invested over EUR 11 billion in Europe since 1990. Its eight European manufacturing plants are located in Portugal, the UK, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Turkey. Today, there are approximately 16.5 million Toyota, GR and Lexus vehicles on European roads, whose drivers are supported by a network of 28 National Marketing and Sales Companies and around 2,800 retail sales outlets in 53 countries (EU, UK, EFTA countries + Russia, Israel, Turkey and other Eastern European countries). In 2021, TME sold 1,076,300 vehicles in Europe for a 6.4% market share. For more information, visit Facts & Figures (toyota.eu) and www.toyota-europe.com.

Toyota believes that when people are free to move, anything is possible. In the pursuit of "Mobility for All", Toyota aims to create safer, more connected, inclusive and sustainable mobility to achieve its mission of producing “Happiness for All”. In Europe, TME launched the KINTO mobility brand which offers a range of mobility services in 14 countries, and is growing its business-to-business sales of zero-emission fuel cell products and engineering support. Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Toyota is working to achieve carbon neutrality in its entire business across Europe. A historic leader in CO2 reduction in Europe, TME aims to achieve 100% CO2 reduction in all new vehicles in Western Europe by 2035 and will continue to offer a full range of electrified powertrains to customers across the region with its hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery and fuel cell electric vehicles. When it comes to sustainability, Toyota is committed to going Beyond Zero.