Toyota has spent the last five years as the “Worldwide Mobility Partner” of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. So far, that’s equated to little more than providing some cars at the events—and making a big PR push. But in Tokyo at the 2020 Olympics, Toyota has bigger plans. The carmaker is providing approximately 3,700 vehicles for the event, many of which have never been released in public before, and 90% of them are electric. This fleet of vehicles varies wildly in scale and purpose, from small buses to personal scooters to robots that save you a trip altogether—and even help retrieve javelins from the field during track events.
For Toyota, it’s not just an opportunity to portray itself to the public as a forward-thinking car company. The Olympic Games—hosted in one of the densest cities in the world—is also the perfect opportunity to test these vehicles and bots in a busy, pedestrian-filled urban environment. Toyota, the car company that birthed the hybrid car revolution, has been dragging its feet for over a decade when it comes to adopting fully electric vehicles. At the Olympics, not only is the company planning to make a strong showing in terms of EVs, it seemingly wants to showcase its vision for the future of mobility in general.
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