The Tesla Model Y has reportedly impressed Toyota’s engineering team, saying the electric SUV is “unbelievable” under the skin – as the Japanese car giant ramps up its efforts to catch the US specialist.
Engineers from Japanese car giant Toyota have called the Tesla Model Y a “work of art” after tearing down an example of the electric SUV, according to overseas reports.
A Toyota insider reportedly told industry journal Automotive News the Tesla had been purchased in an attempt to discover the US electric-car giant’s ‘technological secrets’, though engineers were left surprised at how advanced the Model Y was under its bodywork.
“Taking the skin off the (Tesla) Model Y, it was truly a work of art,” a Toyota executive told Automotive News. “It’s unbelievable.”
According to Automotive News, the Model Y evaluated by Toyota was fitted with Tesla’s ‘structural’ battery pack, which uses the battery in the car’s floor structure, rather than an additional component between sections of its chassis.
A Toyota engineer estimated the new battery design – and a move to casting large parts – has saved approximately 100kg from the Tesla Model Y, allowing it to achieve greater driving range and lower production costs.
While Toyota is the world’s biggest car maker by volume – reporting 10.483 million vehicles as sold in 2022, including its luxury marque Lexus, small-car off-shoot Daihatsu, and truck division Hino – the Model Y tear-down has reportedly served as a wake-up call to the company which has been criticised as being slow in its adoption of electric cars..
After being the first car-maker to produce hybrid cars on a large scale – selling more than 18 million petrol-electric models since 1997 – the Japanese marque only launched its first global battery-powered model – the BZ4X – overseas last year, reporting about 5000 examples sold worldwide in 2022.
By comparison, Tesla achieved a new record of 1.3 million electric cars delivered to customers globally in 2022, with its battery-powered vehicle technology regarded as some of the best in the world.
As reported earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has boldly aimed for the electric-car specialist to sell 20 million cars annually by 2030 – double what Toyota achieved last year – by offering as many as 10 models.
Toyota is targeting Tesla head-on with its electric-car rollout, announcing in December 2021 its plans to launch 12 battery-powered models before the end of the decade.
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