Toyota Sets Aggressive Environmental Goals

Toyota Motor Corp. today announced plans to increase the use of green energy technologies and dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its vehicles and factories over the next 35 years.

As part of the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, the carmaker aims to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of its new vehicle fleet an average of 22% by 2020 and 90% by 2050 compared with 2010 levels.

The company’s future vehicles increasingly will use electrified drivetrains and renewable energy sources such as hydrogen. As part of the plan, Toyota aims to increase its annual global sales of hybrid-electric vehicles from less than 1.3 million units today to 1.5 million per year by 2020, which would nearly double its cumulative sales total to 15 million since launching the Prius hybrid in 1997.

Toyota also is targeting a fast ramp-up of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The carmaker, which launched its first mainstream Mirai fuel cell model last year, aims to sell 30,000 such vehicles—including fuel cell buses—by 2020. It hopes to sell 2,000 fuel cell vehicles next year.

Toyota expects to completely eliminate CO2 emissions at all its factories by 2050. Intermediary steps aim to reduce production process-related emissions per vehicle from new plants and new production lines to half of 2001 levels by 2020 and to one-third by 2030.

Toyota says it will implement compact and more efficient manufacturing processes and convert plants to alternative energy sources. This includes locally produced renewable electricity at its facilities in Brazil, wind power at its Tahara plant in Japan and hydrogen power testing at select facilities in 2020.

The company also is developing ways to reduce water usage and will launch two new recycling programs in Japan next year. Three unspecified new green projects also are planned for 2016.