Toyota is planning a series of regional electrified models that will ride on a new platform scheduled to arrive after 2025. Known as the E3 (emotion, engagement, energy), the architecture will underpin hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and purely electric models that will be sold exclusively on the Old Continent.
The underpinnings will not be developed from scratch as the engineers will combine elements of the e-TNGA platform exclusive to EVs with the GA-C platform tailored to hybrid compact cars. Interestingly, Toyota Europe has ruled out the production of e-NTGA-based vehicles such as the recently unveiled bZ4X pictured here, which will be shipped from Japan starting with 2022.
Instead, it will create a new family of electrified models on the E3 architecture and these vehicles are going to be assembled at Toyota’s plants in Turkey and the United Kingdom. At these facilities, the Japanese brand is already putting together several compact cars utilizing the GA-C underpinnings. The new wave of hybrids, PHEVs, and EVs will do battle in the compact segment as part of the firm’s revamped portfolio.
Automotive News Europe reports that only the Corolla hatchback and maybe the sedan will live to see a new generation in Europe as the wagon will be discontinued at the end of its life cycle. In its place, the new Corolla Cross will serve as the alternative and the compact crossover’s next generation will be built locally on the E3 platform. The swoopy C-HR will also transition to the same hardware for its second iteration.
Toyota Motor Europe CEO Matt Harrison told ANE “we are convinced that the journey to carbon neutrality will not be only electric, it will be eclectic – that is to say, it will embrace multiple technologies and fuels which all lead to the same destination.”
As you might have heard, Toyota will sell only EVs in Western Europe from 2035, be they battery-powered or hydrogen-fueled models. Speaking of hydrogen, the company’s engineers are also working on something quite interesting, an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen rather than fossil fuels. It’s just an experiment for the time, so it’s too premature to see whether production vehicles will follow at some point.
Meanwhile, the first E3-based Toyotas will enter production and hit the market in the latter half of the decade.
Source: Automotive News Europe
