Carmakers love to talk about the future. What they actually build in their factories, quarter after quarter, tells you what they really believe.
Toyota (TM) has spent a generation proving that point. It sold the world on the hybrid with the Prius, turned that idea into an empire, and grew into the planet’s best-selling automaker without leaning much on pure electric cars. Its chairman, Akio Toyoda, has spent years warning that battery power would never take over the road the way its boosters promised.
Then came the pivot almost everyone said Toyota could not make. The company revamped its bZ electric crossover, added the C-HR, opened a new battery plant in Liberty, North Carolina, and revealed a new Highlander that dropped the gas and hybrid engines the nameplate had carried for a quarter century. It showed the electric version off at the New York International Auto Show in April as its first battery-electric vehicle (BEV) assembled in America.
That is where the story gets complicated. In July, Toyota delayed production of that electric Highlander, its first three-row EV built for American buyers, and said it would keep building the gas and hybrid version instead.
What Toyota said about the Highlander delay
Toyota confirmed that production of the 2027 Highlander EV has slipped, and the reason it gave was housekeeping. The delay comes as Toyota is making “additional adjustments to the vehicle prior to launch,” according to Cars.com, which first reported a company spokesperson’s confirmation.
The automaker had planned to start selling the electric Highlander late this year. It has not set a new date.
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In the meantime, the current gas and hybrid Highlander will keep rolling off the line through December, reported Electrek. When I read that official explanation, the timing stood out to me. The extra months will let Toyota keep selling its higher-margin gas and hybrid version, which several outlets flagged as the more likely motive than last-minute polish.
None of that stops the electric project. Toyota is building the Highlander EV at its Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, which employs about 10,000 people, and sourcing batteries from a new $13.9 billion factory in North Carolina. The delay does not undo that investment. It just changes what rolls out of Kentucky first.
The timing is the real puzzle. Toyota is finally selling EVs that buyers want, which makes pausing its next one a curious move, according to Electrek.
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How Toyota’s EV sales tell the real story
Here is the part that makes the delay make sense. When I looked at Toyota’s US numbers through June, the split was hard to argue with.
The automaker sold more than 100,000 Highlanders and Grand Highlanders in the United States through June, against roughly 22,000 fully electric vehicles across its entire lineup, based on the company’s own sales report. The gas and hybrid three-row SUVs are the profit engine. The electric one is still the promise.
The contrast runs through the whole lineup. Toyota says it will soon offer 22 models with electrified powertrains, and most of them are hybrids rather than pure EVs. Its doubts start at the top. Toyoda has forecast that battery EVs will top out near 30% of the global market “no matter how much progress” they make, according to Fortune. This year he told the British site Carwow that he feels “very alone” in defending the combustion engine, reported Motor1.
My read, after tracking these signals, is that Toyota is running two strategies at once:
- Toyota made the next Highlander electric-only, then delayed its launch, according to Cars.com.
- Chairman Akio Toyoda still pegs battery EVs at a 30% global ceiling, according to Fortune.
- The revamped bZ has cleared more than 17,500 US sales this year, outpacing the Chevrolet Equinox EV from General Motors (GM), reported Electrek.
- Toyota moved over 100,000 three-row Highlanders in the US through June, versus about 22,000 EVs, based on its sales report.
What the delay means for EV buyers
For shoppers, the wait has a price. The electric Highlander was expected to start around $50,000, which would slot it under the three-row EVs already on sale, reported Electrek.
Tesla’s (TSLA) new Model Y L starts at $61,990, the Kia EV9 at $54,900, and the Hyundai Ioniq 9 at $58,955. Buyers cross-shopping those models now face a choice. They can wait on a Toyota with no firm on-sale date, or buy a rival sitting on the lot today.
On paper, the Toyota is worth waiting for. It targets up to 320 miles of range and a 10% to 80% charge in about 30 minutes, uses the North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug, and can power tools or a home through vehicle-to-load (V2L) technology, a first for a Toyota sold in the US, according to Electrek and Toyota.
For a family shopping right now, the takeaway is plain. A three-row Toyota EV is coming, but not on a timeline you can plan a purchase around, so a rival on the lot or the current gas Highlander may be the nearer-term answer.
The segment itself is not the problem. Kia EV9 sales rose 42% through June, and Hyundai Ioniq 9 sales jumped 380%, Electrek reported. That is what makes the delay sting. Three-row electric SUVs are one of the few EV categories where buyer demand is clearly climbing.
What Toyota’s next move signals
The open question is whether the electric Highlander shows up in late 2026, in 2027, or quietly slides further down the calendar.
Its electric cousins are riding on the same hardware. The Lexus TZ and the Subaru Getaway share the Highlander’s platform, so a slip here could ripple across three brands, Electrek noted. If the delay stretches deep into 2027, it risks leaving Toyota further behind in a crowded segment. Toyota has been the world’s best-selling automaker for six straight years, and it got there on hybrids, not EVs, according to Motor1.
Toyota has bet real money on going electric. It built the factory, opened the battery plant, and turned its family SUV into a BEV. For now, though, it is holding the gas pump open with one hand while it finishes wiring the future with the other. Which hand it trusts more is the thing worth watching.
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