Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) announced plans on Feb. 10 to debut in the U.S. market this year, three new electrified models – two battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
Toyota shared highlights of new internal research evaluating the environmental impact and cost of ownership between a PHEV and a BEV. For this research, Toyota created a tool that shows the trade-off between GHG emissions and total cost of ownership. The source code for this tool is publicly available at carghg.org for others to experiment with the various input parameters and see the movement of BEVs and PHEVs on the GHG and cost plot.
The research found:
GHG of an available BEV model and PHEV model are roughly the same in on-road performance when factoring in pollutants created by electricity production for the average U.S. energy grid used to charge batteries.
Manufacturing is a component of GHG emissions. Using the “Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies” (GREET) model, researchers found that the production of a PHEV emits less GHG since it uses a smaller, lighter weight battery.
The PHEV is much less expensive to buy and own, compared to the BEV. Without any incentives, the five-year total cost of ownership (TCO) of a long-range BEV is significantly higher than the PHEV. If you include incentives available this year (2020), the TCO of a long-range BEV is much higher.
The new electrified models further expand Toyota’s U.S. footprint in alternative powertrain vehicles. Toyota has over 40% share of the total alternative fuel vehicle market, which includes a 75% share of the fuel cell market and a 64% share of hybrids and plug-ins. By 2025, Toyota’s goal is to have 40% of new vehicle sales be electrified models, and by 2030 expects that to increase to nearly 70%.
Globally, Toyota hybrid vehicles sold have avoided an estimated 139 million tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere. In the U.S., the company has avoided about 38 million tons of GHG.
Between now and 2025, Toyota and Lexus models, globally, will have an electrified option. Toyota is also developing a dedicated BEV platform, e-TNGA, that offers flexibility for all drive configurations.
