Toyota has a long and rich history in the development of Electric Vehicles (EVs), having sold or leased around 1,900 EVs, including a RAV4-EV in the US and in Europe, and the Toyota e-com, since the late 1990s. These vehicles helped us quantify the challenges preventing immediate and widespread customer acceptance.
Today, Toyota sees EVs as an appropriate solution for drivers needing a compact vehicle for shorter distances, such as a city driver, for instance. Based on this approach, Toyota plans to market a lithium-ion, battery-electric vehicle in the United States by 2012.
The FT-EV is the company’s newest EV concept based on the Toyota iQ’s highly compact platform. The FT-EV seats four people at less than three metres in length, and represents a natural pairing of product strategies: zero-emission electric energy, bundled in a small and lightweight package.
Toyota’s FT-EV concept imagines a city driver, travelling up to 80 kilometres between home, work, and other forms of public transportation, such as high-speed rail; in other words, someone who is seeking a compact vehicle for city driving and living.
