Is Toyota's electric car announcement a brilliant plan or just a distraction? 30 EVs by 2030, but which ones will make it to Australia?

Toyota did something enormous in December. The biggest car company in the world revealed plans to electrify its model line-up by 2030.

But it didn’t just make a vague commitment to hit a target by that time. The company’s long-standing president, Akio Toyoda, announced in a live-streamed event that Toyota, and premium sister brand Lexus, would launch 30 new electric models by 2030.

What was truly extraordinary about the announcement was the fact Toyota revealed not just one or two new models during the presentation, but 15 new all-electric models. There were 16 on display, but we have already seen the Toyota bZ4X.

Mr Toyoda stood arms outstretched in front of these new EVs that will form part of the Toyota and Lexus model line-ups by 2030. Given 16 were shown during the event, there are another 14 still to be uncovered.

The reason it’s so extraordinary is because no other “legacy” carmaker has done anything like this before. Plenty have revealed targets, detailed numbers of electric models they will eventually launch, or shown a concept or a new production model, but none have laid it all out with examples of the vehicles that will eventually make it to showrooms around the world.

It’s likely many of the EVs on display are in concept stage and will differ by the time they make it to production. With the exception of the Toyota bZ4X crossover that goes on sale next year, and its Lexus RZ mechanical twin that are all but ready to roll.

Toyota’s announcement has put many of its mainstream rivals on notice. In particular, fellow Japanese brands that have only dipped their toes into electrification like Mazda, Honda and Subaru.

Given the popularity of Toyota globally, and in Australia, and its coverage in the biggest vehicle segments, does this mean it’s game over for all of Toyota’s rivals?

Of the EVs shown, there was a sub-compact crossover (for Europe and Japan), two small SUVs, a medium SUV (the bZ4X), large SUV, sedan, a sports car, an FJ Cruiser-referencing off-roader, and a pick-up.

That essentially covers most of the key vehicle segments.

Remember as well, Toyota will continue to sell internal combustion and hybrid models for quite a while yet, so the addition of all these EVs (and the ones we haven’t seen) will only increase the brand’s sales dominance.

It’s all part of Toyota’s commitment to be completely carbon neutral by 2050 through its model line-up, manufacturing, supply chain and more.

Toyota/Lexus aims to achieve global sales of 3.5 million battery EVs every year by 2030. This part of the electrification plan will cost Toyota $100 billion.

The question must be asked – is Toyota just playing catch up?

Some mainstream brands like Volkswagen have been open about their plans and have even launched multiple ‘ID’ models as part of its global EV offensive.

Hyundai, Kia and Nissan are slowly ramping up too, as is Ford, but none have been as open as Toyota now has.

But it wasn’t always the case.

Akio Toyota has, on multiple occasions, played down the role of battery EVs in the future of the automotive industry, and suggested things were moving too quickly, especially in Toyota’s home market of Japan.

Speaking as the chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), Mr Toyoda said as recently as September this year that any move by politicians to legislate the banning of internal combustion engine vehicles would be dooming the Japanese industry.

“This means that production of more than eight million units would be lost, and the automotive industry could risk losing the majority of 5.5 million jobs. If they say internal combustion engines are the enemy, we would not be able to produce almost any vehicles.”

Mr Toyoda is a vocal proponent of internal combustion engines, believing they have a future with hydrogen power instead of fuel. Toyota debuted such an engine in a race car at an event in Japan this year under the bonnet of a Corolla hatch.

In the USA, Toyota has been lobbying against a full transition to battery electric vehicles, according to reports in The New York Times, with senior executives pushing for hybrid and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to play a larger part.

All of this concern about battery EVs makes the latest announcement even more interesting. It appears to be a massive backflip, particularly from Akio Toyoda himself.

And it's strange particularly because Toyota is a pioneer when it comes to electrified vehicles. As the first mass-production petrol-electric hybrid car in the world in the late 1990s, the Prius was a game-changer and is seen as one of the most critical cars launched in the past 25 years.

Toyota has only built on this since then, offering hybrid versions of its best-selling models like the Corolla, RAV4, Camry and Kluger, and racking up more than 15 million hybrid sales worldwide.

It was also early to the hydrogen party with its Mirai sedan, now in its second generation, with more fuel-cell models still to come.

Whatever the reason for Toyota’s bold electrification plan, it’s good news for customers. The more EVs there are in multiple segments, the cheaper they will eventually become.

But what does this mean for Australia?

Toyota Australia isn’t saying a whole lot about which models will end up in local showrooms, but the company’s Aussie president and CEO, Matthew Callachor, said in a press release that Toyota was committed to offering customers “a range of technologies” for the foreseeable future.

“Importantly, Toyota is not limited to a single technical solution because Australians have vastly different motoring needs, with locations from inner cities to suburbs, regional and rural areas and outback Australia,” he said.

That means we can expect some, but not all, of these new exciting new Toyota EVs to be offered in Australia before 2030.

Watch this space.