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Toyota is all-in on electrified vehicles.

If you doubted this statement in the past, this week’s announcement by Toyota should quickly alter your viewpoint.

Toyota announced it will debut three new electrified vehicles sometime in 2021. This includes one plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and two battery electric vehicles (BEV).

What will this mean, though, for Toyota – as well as its electrification competitor Tesla?

Toyota Hybrid Vehicles

To me, this is where things will get interesting for Toyota consumers and fans (I will put myself in both categories, since I currently own four Toyotas).

Torque News reporter John Goreham offered up his opinion in a recent story that one of these new Toyota vehicles will be an all-electric RAV4. This makes total sense. It would not be the first-ever RAV4 electric vehicle, but it would mark a serious jump back into the United States battery electric vehicle market for Toyota.

I mean, Toyota RAV4 is the best-selling small SUV in the country right now. Talk about making a dramatic statement, though. A Toyota RAV4 gasoline-only, a RAV4 Hybrid, a RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid electric, and potentially an electric-only RAV4.

The only thing that stops me from completely thinking RAV4 is because 2021 RAV4 Prime is already available as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Would this crowd the RAV4 market even more?

We could also be looking at a Prius all-electric. The 2021 Prius Prime plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is already here. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I could see at least one BEV being an SUV (yes, this is a lot of acronyms). I could see Toyota Highlander being one of these. I could also imagine Toyota Venza or Toyota Camry being announced as one of the battery electric vehicles.

Even though the 2022 Toyota Tundra redesign should be announced and launched any time now, is there any chance at all for Tundra to be the chosen one?

Rumors are everywhere about a Toyota Tundra hybrid for 2022 model year already. What if it came with a plug-in port as well? Interesting but I just do not know about this line of thinking. Doubtful for me.

So, at least one of these will be a new model. Maybe a Corolla crossover small SUV. Perhaps a form of Yaris.

Point is, none of us knows.

And Toyota is notorious for not revealing their cards before they are perfectly ready.

Kenny Rogers told us over and over, “you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”

Toyota is a good gambler, I suppose.

Tesla status after Toyota announcement

Where does this surprising Toyota announcement leave Tesla?

John Goreham also recently wrote about Toyota United States new vehicle deliveries compared to Tesla over the past few years.

It seems Tesla new vehicle sales in the country since 2018 have shown relatively minimal increases. Toyota hybrid sales, however, have grown by 37%.

YOU MAY ENJOY: My video review explains how a Toyota Prius Prime works.

This comparison is both startling and perhaps a tell-tale sign of the near future in electric vehicle research, development, manufacturing and in sales.

Toyota took a shocking shot this week.

The question is, how will Tesla respond?

Time for your thoughts on Toyota and Tesla

Thanks for reading everyone.

The interesting take home here for me is how quickly this rapidly expanding market is changing. By the year, by the month and by the week it appears at times.

We have exciting things happening for both extremely popular brands – Toyota and Tesla. In vehicle planning and production. In battery development. And in sales.

I cannot wait to see how this all unfolds.

Do you own either a Tesla or Toyota hybrid? What has your experience been so far?

Would you prefer a completely electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or a basic hybrid vehicle?

See you next story when I discuss what needs a redesign more: Toyota Tacoma or Toyota 4Runner.

Follow Jeff Teague on social media:

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