Toyota Targets Zero Carbon Emissions from Vehicle Lifecycle, Plants by 2050

Toyota has set a series of goals to eliminate almost all of its carbon emissions — from its new vehicles, production and plants — over the next 35 years.

The Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, which aims to cut water use and CO2 emissions, and reduce the negative environmental impact of manufacturing and driving vehicles as much as possible, includes six individual challenges.

As a key step toward achieving these long-term targets, Toyota has announced its Sixth Toyota Environmental Action Plan, which it says will be enacted between April 2016 and the end of March 2021.

Toyota has set a goal of reducing global average new-vehicle CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2050, compared to its 2010 global average. The company says it will achieve this by increasing sales of fuel cell vehicles, achieving annual global sales of over 30,000 fuel cell vehicles around or after 2020.

Earlier this year Toyota launched its Mirai fuel cell sedan — the first mass market fuel cell car — in Toyota City, Japan. Additionally, in partnership with Nissan and Honda, Toyota is supporting a project for the development of hydrogen station infrastructure in Japan, with the companies paying up to $90,000 per hydrogen station.

Other environmental challenges are to completely eliminate all CO2 emissions, including materials, parts and manufacturing, from the vehicle lifecycle, and to achieve zero CO2 emissions at all plants by 2050. To achieve this, Toyota says it will cut production process-related CO2 emissions per vehicle from new plants and new production lines to roughly half of 2001 levels by 2020, and roughly a third by 2030. It is also using renewable energy and hydrogen-based production methods to completely eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050.

Toyota also has set a goal of effective wastewater management and minimizing water consumption, taking into account the conditions in each country and region.