Akio Toyoda explains why Toyota isn’t diving into electric cars, even though that might seem like the next logical step given its hybrid lineup.
Japanese automaker Toyota has experience with building hybrid vehicles like few brands, so it may be happy with the gradual transition to all-electric mobility. Or not? The brand is reluctant to offer all-electric cars, despite increasingly stringent emissions regulations. The Toyota boss tried to shed light on it.
At a recent event to celebrate Toyota’s 60 years in Thailand, its boss, Akio Toyoda, confirmed the brand’s reluctance to go electric, despite increasingly stringent emissions regulations and plans in many markets to ban sales of cars with combustion engines in the near future.
Toyoda admitted that he has attracted a lot of criticism for his reluctance. However, his prudence has a reason, it is not a simple whim. According to Toyoda, the automotive world has no realistic expectations for electromobility. It’s about when society will be ready to embrace electric cars and when the infrastructure will be ready for them to expand further.
He likened his reasoning to automakers who say autonomous cars are just around the corner, even though we’re still a long way from putting autonomous cars into service on a larger scale. It is similar, according to Toyoda, to electric cars, whose mass distribution is wider than their promoters claim.
Another reason is the fact that Toyota doesn’t want to bet everything on one card and has alternative paths to achieve carbon neutrality. Toyoda mentioned, for example, zero-emission synthetic fuels or the use of hydrogen in fuel cells or its direct combustion. According to him, hydrogen makes a lot of sense, especially in trucks.
Toyoda identified carbon as the enemy, not a specific way to drive the vehicle. That’s why Toyota is committed to reducing carbon emissions not only locally, but also in vehicle manufacturing and their recycling or material procurement. But Akio Toyoda understands that his brand has to offer some electric cars. Therefore, together with Lexus, he plans to offer 30 electric cars worldwide by 2030.
