Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has announced a new fully electric model that will be underpinned by the forthcoming e-TNGA platform. The upcoming a mid-sized battery-electric SUV will initially be positioned in the European Battery Electric line-up and the brand has only revealed a stylised silhouette the details of which will be announced in the coming months.
The brand has confirmed that the new mid-size electric SUV will be built on the e-TNGA (electric-Toyota New Generation Architecture) platform which has been designed to be highly versatile and easily adaptable for a range of products. The basic architecture of the platform features a few fixed key elements while others can vary which allows the manufacturer to change the length, width, height and wheelbase of the vehicle.
The new e-TNGA platform’s high versatility and adaptability also allow the company to equip it with a wide range of battery and electric motor capacities depending on the application, vehicle type, load requirement, usage profile etc. The new e-TNGA also enables the brand to employ a front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive systems, further widening the horizon for the platform.
With the versatile e-TNGA platform, multiple models can be developed in parallel substantially reducing the development time of different product variants also improving the economies of scale. The brand has also revealed that the first e-TNGA based model has already been developed and the company will soon be putting it into production.
Toyota has not yet revealed if the brand will retail the e-TNGA based electric SUV model outside Europe and more details are still awaited. But reports suggest that the new unnamed model is being developed with the help of Subaru and will be ‘Very European’ in its design. The brand is also likely to co-develop another crossover model with its strategic partner Suzuki based on the e-TNGA platform. The new Toyota model is expected to be positioned against the Nissan Ariya and the Volkswagen ID.4 in the European market.
Toyota has also announced that the brand will be manufacturing the e-TNGA based vehicle at the company’s ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) factory in Japan.