It’s no news that Paralympic and Olympics are coming to Tokyo, Japan in 2020 next year. Toyota, the event’s official fleet provider recently announced that they have planned a massive deployment of hydrogen-powered and battery-electric vehicles for the pinnacle sports event of the world.
The reputed automaker released a statement in which they announced that they will be using 3700 mobility vehicles and/or products, 90% of which will be powered by electricity. These can be either gas-electric, hydrogen-powered or battery-electric hybrids. Out of these 3700 vehicles, 500 will feature fuel-electric and 850 battery-electric capabilities. These vehicles will be provided in different shapes and sizes, including scooters, cars, mopeds, shuttles, buses and more. Toyota is viewing 2020 Japan Olympics as a major platform for showcasing its alternative fuel powered and experimental machines. The company’s top talking point has been how they’ve been working towards reducing carbon emissions. Online casinos, powered by some of the best online slots, is another prominent industry which is contributing significantly towards CO2 emission reduction.
Toyota re-launching itself into the alternative-fuel-powered vehicle race
As everyone might recall, Toyota was the first company to use and introduce alternative fuels, when they launched their hybrid Prius in the year 1997. However, they got left behind in the race of releasing mass-market and premium electric vehicles over the years, and were overtaken by companies like GM, Tesla, Nissan etc. The Japanese car manufacturer has informed that it will be launching 6 new electric vehicles from the start of 2020 through till 2025. The Olympics will serve as a grand stage for them to launch this line up.
e-Palettes to meet transportation requirements inside the Olympic and Paralympic village
Other than that, to it also has plans of launching couple of its earlier unveiled concept vehicles – the Concept-i and e-Palette at the event. When e-Palette was unveiled at the CES 2018, many termed it as ‘weird, self-driving see-through boxes, delivering pizza, packages and people through the cities.’
Toyota is planning to make these e-Palettes serve multiple functions, such as a regular mobility service like carpooling and ridesharing to less known purposes like medical clinics, retail stores, mobile offices, hotel rooms etc., in the near future. However, talking specifically about Olympics, these vehicles will meet the transportation requirements of athletes and staff members, with around a dozen running continuously inside the Paralympic and Olympic Village. Toyota has revealed that these e-Palettes will be Level 4 autonomous, implying that they will not need a human driver and will be confined only to a predefined geographic area.
The Concept-i and other vehicles
Unveiled at CES 2017, the Concept-i will be the operating vehicle during the torch relay as well as the leading car during the marathon, during the 2020 Olympics. The vehicle will serve as Toyota’s platform to show off their accomplishments in the artificial intelligence space, thanks to their in-vehicle AI assistant known as ‘Yui’ as well as their achievements in the highly automated driving.
Other than these, you will see close to 300 standing electric scooters of all sizes and stripes, as well as wheelchair-link and sitting type personal mobility devices.
