Toyota may overhaul EV strategy to better compete with Tesla

Toyota may overhaul its electric vehicle strategy to better compete in a booming market and has halted some work on existing EV projects.

If the proposals are adopted, it would rewrite the $38 billion EV rollout plan Toyota announced last year.

Toyota has designated a group to outline plans for improvements to its existing EV platform or new architecture.

In the meantime, Toyota suspended work on some 30 EV projects announced in December, which include the Toyota Compact Cruiser crossover and the battery-electric Crown.

Toyota said it was committed to carbon neutrality but declined to comment on specific initiatives.

The revamp under consideration could slow the rollout of EVs already on the drawing board. But it would also give Toyota a chance to compete with a more efficient manufacturing process as industry-wide EV sales run past the firm’s earlier projections.

In addition, it would address criticism by green investors that Toyota, has been too slow to embrace EVs.

Toyota is considering a successor to its EV-underpinning technology called e-TNGA, unveiled in 2019. That would allow Toyota to bring down costs.

The first EV based on e-TNGA, the bZ4X crossover, hit the market earlier this year, although its launch was marred by a recall.

The review was triggered in part by the realization of some Toyota engineers and executives that Toyota was losing the factory cost war to Tesla on EVs.