NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Photo : Getty Images)
The worsening condition of the environment has spurred Toyota to plan for the phase out of diesel engine vehicles by 2050.
The Japanese car manufacturing giant shared its business plan on Wednesday with Nikkei. The plan seeks a 90 percent cut in Toyotas new-car carbon dioxide emissions within the next 35 years.
Explaining the timetable, Toyota Senior Managing Officer Kiyotaka Ise says, "You may think 35 years is a long time." He continues, "But for an automaker to envision all combustion engines as gone is pretty extraordinary."
Forbes says that what Toyota has in mind is not a car that runs on pure electric battery like Tesla's vehicles, but a hydrogen fuel cell car similar to the Mirai which the firm rolled out in December 2014. For 2017, Toyota targets to sell 3,000 Mirais and over 30,000 by 2020.
Toyota also makes the hybrid Prius which has sold 8 million units by July 2015 since it was launched in 1997. By using control software and other technologies, Toyota is aiming to develop hybrids to fuel cell- and battery-powered vehicles.
CTV News reports that Toyota would participate in the Smart Mobility City 2015 in Tokyo to show its talking cars which are the future of cleaner and safer mobility. These are through the models Crown and Prius which would go on sale in Japan by the end of 2015 and be available in the U.S. and Europe by 2017.
Elon Musk's Tesla has been producing vehicles with zero emissions, although the company holds a small share of the auto market. However, if Tesla would be able to mass-market the Model 3, priced at $35,000, it aims to sell 500,000 electric vehicles yearly by 2020.
