In just two years, 50% of Toyota's sales in Europe will be hybrids

“By 2020, our goal is for 50 percent of our sales in Europe to be hybrid models. Currently in Western Europe the proportion is fairly close to these figures (40 percent), although there are already countries, such as France, where the figure is already 60 percent,” Zyl recently told “Automotive News”.

Although the change will not happen quickly, Toyota predicts that cars powered by diesel technology will be replaced by hybrid technology. “Diesel is still necessary for vehicles such as the Land Cruiser, which has a 2.8-litre D-4D Euro6.2 engine. With this type of engine, we can provide all the technology needed to make diesel clean. We will decide model by model, but the possibility of launching a new diesel engine in a passenger car or people carrier is certainly limited. Our future is hybrids,” Zyl said.

Several European countries (France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway) have already announced future bans on models fitted with combustion engines, a situation that Toyota is studying very closely. “We take those announcements very seriously because we have to determine how we are going to evolve our future range,” Zyl said. For the time being, Toyota will not get involved in 48-volt hybrid technology, but will continue down the path of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and also electric cars.

The CEO of Toyota Europe did not want to give figures or forecast sales volumes of electric vehicles in the European market for 2025, although he did point to possible factors that could drive their growth: “It will depend,” he said, “on the technological developments that take place, such as range or charging infrastructure. Manufacturers will assess government regulations and the losses their electric cars generate.”