Tom Fux
Vice President Toyota Motor Europe, Sales & Value Chain, Toyota Sales & Marketing
Dear Ladies & Gentlemen,
Good morning and welcome to Toyota. My name is Tom Fux, and I am Vice President of Toyota Motor Europe for Sales, Marketing and Value Chain.
Today, we are thrilled to present our European Commercial Vehicle strategy and ambitions.
Our global company vision of providing mobility solutions for every customer and leaving no one behind also applies to our commercial vehicle range. Indeed, I am very pleased to announce that as from today, Toyota offers a full and electrified product range to meet every customer’s need.
First, let’s have a look at Toyota’s commercial vehicle business in Europe so far.
Our story dates back to the 60s, when we launched the legendary Hilux & Hiace in Europe. Since then, they gained a worldwide reputation for quality, durability & reliability.
Back in 2016, we entered into a strategic partnership with Stellantis for commercial vehicles, starting with the Toyota PROACE. Since then, we have enjoyed year-on-year growth in Europe – both in terms of sales and market share.
We strengthened our product line-up with the PROACE CITY at the end of 2019. And, in 2021, we introduced the PROACE and PROACE CITY Electric.
Last year we achieved record sales of 140,000 units representing a record market share of 5.7%.
So far, we were covering the pick-up, CDV and MDV segments, with the Hilux, PROACE CITY and PROACE, which represents 70% of the LCV market.
However, Toyota was still missing the offer in the heavy-duty segment. This segment accounts for around 30% of total LCV market. To answer the demand of our customers, we are now announcing a newcomer to our range.
A completely new model for Toyota …. the PROACE MAX.
PROACE MAX completes our commercial offer… and, with its wide range of body varieties, it provides many new business opportunities for us … and our customers.
PROACE MAX has been shortlisted for the 2025 International Van of The Year.
So – how does this translate into our mid-term ambitions?
Well, we want Toyota Professional to become an even more credible LCV brand in Europe… and we are aiming for a top 6 position by further growing our market share to 7% and reaching an annual sales volume of 180,000 units.
To achieve these goals, we have developed Toyota LCV strategy based on 4 pillars:
We will offer a strong and competitive product range…
We will take care of our customers every step of the way…
We will provide market-leading commercial vehicle services and expertise.
And we will roll-out dedicated Toyota Professional Centres across Europe to provide the right customer journey.
Thanks to the new PROACE MAX, our Toyota Professional line-up is now complete, allowing us to offer a full product range to our customers.
Toyota Professional is more than just vehicles.
Customers choosing Toyota Professional enjoy a wide range of products and services including:
Toyota Relax warranty service…whenever their vehicle is serviced at an authorized Toyota retailer, customers obtain a new warranty for 1 additional year, up to 10 years or 185,000 km. Here in Germany, we extended the warranty even up to 15 years.
We also plan to minimise vehicle downtime offering the Express Service, performing regular maintenance with two expert technicians.
And, of course, on top of these programmes, we are offering tailor-made financial services and products provided by KINTO, Toyota Financial Services and Toyota Insurance Services, all represented here on this stand.
To secure the right and consistent expertise, we have developed pan-European trainings for our LCV sales and after sales experts.
With our complete line-up, we will also benefit from new conversion business opportunities.
In line with our Mobility For All promise, we have developed a wheelchair accessible vehicle conversion for PROACE Verso, and today, as European premiere, we showcase a wheelchair accessible concept for the CDV segment as well.
We will have the RIGHT products, the RIGHT services, and the RIGHT people, but also the RIGHT place with our Toyota Professional Centres to meet every customer needs.
Our Toyota Professional Centres will all get a brand new, distinctive look. And by end of 2025 we are planning to reach 500 Toyota Professional Centres around Europe.
At Toyota, we believe in the power of our multi-path strategy towards carbon neutrality – including our commercial vehicle range.
Specifically of interest to fleet customers, we offer as current line-up portfolio a wide range of internal combustion engines, mild hybrid, and battery electric vehicles. With a battery electric vehicles sales mix of 10%, we are already a top performing brand in Europe, outperforming the market overall.
But, of course, our ambition is to further increase the mix of zero-emission vehicles by further working with our customers to define the next generation of product solutions.
As possible next steps, we have recently presented battery electric and fuel cell electric prototypes of the iconic Hilux. I believe the fuel cell variant is of key interest in Europe, particularly as we’re also looking at solutions in the medium- and heavy-duty truck markets.
To tell us more about our fuel cell strategy, I would like to invite Yasui-san on stage.
Shinichi Yasui
Executive Vice President Toyota Motor Europe, R&D, Hydrogen Factory Europe, Connected Technologies & Purchasing / Chief Project Leader Toyota Motor Corporation, Hydrogen Factory
Thank you Tom.
Good morning, everyone, my name is Shinichi Yasui. I am Executive Vice President of TME R&D and Chief Project Leader of Hydrogen Factory.
Today, I’d like to explain hydrogen related activities in Toyota.
Indeed, we strongly believe that hydrogen fuel cell technology is a great fit for LCVs and we recently demonstrated it in the Hilux at the Olympic games.
In fact, in Paris we showed how hydrogen can be used for many applications – all of which can support a local hydrogen cluster – which in turn creates demand and reduces costs. This kind of cluster combines fuel cell use in cars, taxis, buses, trucks and even boats operating on the river.
This supports our image that carbon is our enemy, and we should use all technologies and a wide range of applications to fight it by multi-pathway approach.
Our goal is to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, as soon as possible, everywhere in the world! And not just for light duty vehicles.
We believe fuel cell technology is a very good fit for medium and heavy duty transportation solutions. Let me explain briefly.
The wider use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is coming quickly.
Recently the EU president re-confirmed that hydrogen for carbon reduction is critical for Europe to achieve its climate goals. To support this ambition, the EU and its member states have a wide-reaching framework in place.
The Renewable Energy Directive mandates that 42% of industry hydrogen must come from renewables by 2030… and 60% by 2035.
At the same time, there is an EU regulation to stimulate the development of a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. This means there will be a hydrogen station every 200 kilometers along the Trans-European Transport Network by the end of this decade.
The point is that green hydrogen is going to be widely available across Europe by 2030. Things are moving.
At the same time, Toyota is not standing still.
We believe that today we already have industry-leading hydrogen fuel cell technology.
However, we have already announced our 3rd generation technology which will further improve efficiency by around 20% and reduce the cost of the FC stack by up to 50%.
The launch of this latest technology will coincide with new infrastructure and green hydrogen developments I just mentioned. This will give an increasing number of transportation companies a practical and affordable way to reduce their carbon footprints.
With our partners we have already created a wide range of applications including buses, boats, trains and stationary power generators.
However, being here in Hannover, I want to highlight the importance of fuel cells for medium and heavy-duty trucks.
Truck companies are facing strict CO2 reduction targets towards 2030. This requires them to develop practical and reliable zero emissions solutions.
This is a key reason why we took trucks very much into account when developing our 3rd generation fuel cell technology. As a result, not only will the efficiency increase and the cost reduce, but the durability will improve significantly.
Our door remains open to new partners in Europe and beyond and we are looking forward to a wide range of fuel cell applications across the whole industry.
Let me end by saying: “The future is something we all create together”.
So, let’s work together to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible and as soon as possible in the transportation sector.
Thank you.
Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA (TME) oversees the wholesale sales and marketing of Toyota, GR (Gazoo Racing) and Lexus vehicles and parts and accessories, as well as Toyota’s European manufacturing and engineering operations. Toyota directly employs over 25,000 people and has invested over EUR 11 billion in Europe since 1990. Its eight European manufacturing plants are located in Portugal, the UK, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Turkey. Today, there are approximately 14.7 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles on European roads, whose drivers are supported by a network of 28 National Marketing and Sales Companies and around 2,800 retail sales outlets in 53 countries (EU, UK, EFTA countries , Israel, Turkey and other Eastern European countries). In 2023, TME sold 1,173,419 vehicles in Europe for a 6.7% market share. For more information, visit www.toyota-europe.com.
Toyota believes that when people are free to move, anything is possible. In the pursuit of “Mobility for All”, Toyota aims to create safer, more connected, inclusive and sustainable mobility to achieve its mission of producing “Happiness for All”. In Europe, TME launched the KINTO mobility brand which offers a range of mobility services in 20 countries, and is growing its business-to-business sales of zero-emission fuel cell products and engineering support. Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Toyota is working to achieve carbon neutrality in its entire business across Europe. A historic leader in CO2 reduction in Europe, TME aims to achieve 100% CO2 reduction in all new vehicles in Western Europe by 2035 and will continue to offer a full range of electrified powertrains to customers across the region with its hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery and fuel cell electric vehicles.
Toyota views hydrogen as one of the key building blocks towards carbon neutrality, using fuel cell technology for mobility and in the wider economy beyond transport. Toyota’s advanced fuel cell technology is already integrated into passenger cars, buses, trucks, trains, marine and stationary applications for a range of business customers and other OEMs. To meet growing demand in the region, TME started producing its 2nd generation compact fuel cell modules in Europe in January 2022. In terms of infrastructure, Toyota’s long-term vision is to establish 700bar as a standard for fuel cell electric vehicles and products.