Toyota to speed up EV production, aims for over 600,000 vehicles in 2025 – Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) -Toyota Motor will speed up production of electric vehicles of its Toyota and luxury Lexus brands, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday.

The Nikkei report said the Japanese automaker was likely to step up production of battery-powered vehicles over the coming years to reach annual output of more than 600,000 vehicles in 2025.

Toyota declined to comment on the report.

The company has previously said it targets sales of 1.5 million EVs annually by 2026 and 3.5 million, or about one-third of current global volume, by 2030.

Toyota last year sold fewer than 25,000 EVs, including of its Lexus brand, worldwide.

It sought to raise EV production to about 150,000 vehicles in 2023 and gradually increase it further to the 190,000-vehicle range next year, Nikkei said.

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jane Merriman)