Toyota says cost being its obstacle to launch NEVs in China

Shanghai (Gasgoo)-With the ever-booming NEV market in China and the officially-released dual-credit policy, Toyota now eyes the pure electric vehicle market in China. Hiroji Onishi, President of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (TMCI) said that Toyota will introduce Toyota-branded electric vehicles in Chinese market in 2020, which is considered a tad too late for Toyota to enter into the Chinese NEV market. What's more, the phasing out of Chinese NEV subsidies will also strike heavily to the NEV manufacturers. 

According to Hiroji Onishi, the high cost of NEV development is the common problem that burdens almost all the carmakers, and Toyota is no exception. Thus purchasing the NEV parts locally including the batteries would reduce the production costs of NEVs. Currently, Toyota will seek more local NEV suppliers which meet the standards of NEVs to gain a win-win situation in the Chinese NEV market.

In terms of the reasons why Toyota enters into the NEV market in China later than other carmakers, Hiroji Onishi explained that Toyota never introduce products into the market until it can provide a real model, and seeking proper local NEV suppliers also takes time. He also said that the phasing out of Chinese NEV subsidies will burden the development of NEVs, thus they will give top priority to NEV cost reduction during the developing process. Besides, Toyota will also attach importance to the usage circle of the whole model and customer services. Hiroji Onishi expressed that Toyota will keep a close eye on the development of batteries, and will choose proper battery suppliers as their partners. As to the future development, Hiroji Onishi was very confident about its business in China though currently they ranked third among Japanese peers in Chinese market.