Hurrah! Toyota has just launched its first full-electric car!
Hurrah! It's not coming to Europe. Wait, what?
City centre runabout
Sadly, that is the case, but don't be down-hearted. The tiny C+Pod is merely the first step on Toyota's long electric journey. Also, technically, it's not quite the first Toyota electric car - that would be the short-lived all-electric RAV4, co-developed with Tesla, that was briefly on sale in the US. The C+Pod is all Toyota's work, though, and is the tiny two-seater - kind of a Smart ForTwo rival - that's been designed, for now, for large companies and local government agencies who want to provide fleets of easy-access EV transportation for their employees. More general sales to private buyers will start in 2022.
150km range
So, what is a C+Pod? It's a 2.4-metre long two-seater, with a rear-mounted electric motor and rear-wheel drive. Don't go expecting lairy Porsche-style handling, though, not with that phone-box-on-wheels styling. It also has only 12hp (9.2kW) from that motor and a tiny 52Nm of torque. The battery holds a mere 9.06kWh of charge, but Toyota says that thanks to the C+Pod's titchy weight and tiny size, that's still good enough for 150km of range on a full charge. There's no quoted 0-100km/h time, presumably because the battery would die before you'd got to that kind of speed...
Emergency power
In spite of that size, Toyota claims that the C+Pod is very safe, thanks to "a structure that efficiently disperses and absorbs impact energy across multiple components, and ensures safety in the event of frontal, side or rear impacts. Mitigates any impact on pedestrians in a collision with a vehicle body structure that reduces pedestrian injury." It also comes with a full suite of pedestrian and cyclist detection systems for autonomous emergency braking.
Inside, interestingly, there's no big touchscreen - just a simple digital instrument pod mounted in the centre of the dash. Toyota says that thanks to a 1,100mm cabin width, there's enough room for two adults to sit comfortably side-by-side. The car in the official photos is a pretty plain white, but you can have a rather more striking Cyan Metallic, or even Orange Metallic point option.
Oh, and with Japan being a country often assailed by earthquakes, the C+Pod can even ride to the rescue in the event of a natural disaster, thanks to an external plug socket which can provide electrical power for as much as ten hours on a full charge.
As we said, the C+Pod won't be coming to Europe, but it is interesting to see what the world's largest - and arguably most influential - car maker is up to in electric terms. Toyota's first proper EV for Europe will be a RAV-4-sized SUV, due to be revealed later in 2021.