It looks like Toyota is aiming for a smaller piece of the electric vehicle (EV) pie. The company, known for its big ambitions in the EV market, may be scaling back its next project. According to a report by Japan’s Best Car, Toyota is teaming up with Suzuki to develop a mini-electric car.
In 2022, Suzuki sold a whopping 1.31 million electric cars
Why Suzuki? According to JATO Dynamics, the small car giant sold a whopping 1.31 million units in 2022. This is a huge customer base that is eager to switch to electric vehicles. It is noteworthy that in January 2023, Suzuki presented its first-ever electric vehicle, the eVX crossover concept, hinting at its electric ambitions.
Toyota, for its part, aims to produce 1.5 million battery electric vehicles (BEVs) annually by 2026. But this time, instead of thinking big, it seems to be thinking small. The proposed mini-electric car is rumored to resemble the 145-inch-long Toyota Aygo X, which is a hot seller in Europe.
The two companies have been working closely together for some time. Last year, they announced the strengthening of their existing partnership in the development of compact electric vehicles. More recently, in May 2023, they announced a joint project that focuses on a new EV platform for mini-electric vehicles.
What does the conceptual name of the new vehicle hint at? Last week, the name “FT-3e” was registered with the USPTO. For those keeping score, “FT” stands for Future Toyota. Given Toyota’s history of using this prefix for concept cars, this mini-electric vehicle could be the future we’re looking at.
To add fuel to the fire (or perhaps more electrons to the battery), Toyota is withholding information about some of the 15 electric vehicle concepts it unveiled last December. One of them was prominently labeled as a “small electric crossover BZ”. Is this a preview of a Toyota-Suzuki collaboration? Time will tell. Stay tuned for the Japanese Motor Show, which begins on October 26, where we can learn some juicy details about the mysterious FT-3e.
