Toyota — long the world’s biggest car maker and one of the most cautious voices on full electrification — is finally doubling down on EVs as Chinese rivals eat into its global market share.
The Japanese giant’s CEO Koji Sato has spent recent months warning suppliers and shareholders alike that the company faces a genuine “crisis” without bigger changes. Speaking to nearly 500 suppliers earlier this year, Sato said competition from Chinese carmakers and the pace of EV innovation meant that, “unless things change, we will not survive.”
The numbers tell the story. Toyota’s net income dropped from $26.8 billion to $20.3 billion over the most recent nine-month period, with profit per vehicle slipping 5% as cheaper Chinese EVs flooded global markets. In China itself — the world’s largest car market and once a goldmine for foreign brands — Toyota’s sales, including its luxury Lexus arm, fell by 2.8% in the most recent half-year period to about 879,000 units. By comparison, local brand BYD has overtaken Tesla to become the world’s biggest EV seller.
Toyota’s response has been pragmatic rather than proud. Instead of trying to out-engineer the Chinese on its own, it is teaming up with them. The company’s bZ3X electric SUV, built jointly with GAC Toyota for the Chinese market, starts at the equivalent of around £11,500 (roughly 109,800 yuan) and was the best-selling joint-venture new-energy vehicle in China for seven straight months from September 2025. In April 2026, GAC Toyota sold 10,027 bZ3X units in a single month — a new record.
It’s also looking to source up to 30% of its EV parts from Chinese suppliers for production in Thailand and elsewhere, with executives openly acknowledging the country’s batteries, electronics and software stacks now lead the world.
The broader Toyota strategy is what it calls “multi-pathway” — sticking with hybrids, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as well as full EVs. The view from Toyota HQ is that not every market is ready to go battery-only, and that flexibility is its strength. Critics argue Toyota arrived at EVs too late and is now playing catch-up in a market it could have led a decade ago.
For UK taxi, private hire and Uber drivers — many of whom rely heavily on Toyota and Lexus hybrids for their reliability and fuel economy — the practical question is which way the brand goes next. If Toyota’s renewed EV push delivers, drivers could see a new generation of affordable, long-range battery models reaching UK forecourts in the next couple of years. The C-HR+ is already on sale and eligible for the £1,500 Electric Car Grant. The bZ4X facelift is here. More are coming.
The bigger picture is that even Toyota — the brand most associated with hybrid scepticism towards full battery power — now sees no realistic alternative to going electric at scale. For drivers thinking about their next vehicle, that’s worth paying attention to.
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