Despite constant acceleration in the global trend of EV growth, automotive leader Toyota is still pessimistic towards EVs, as the company is not convinced that the government’s prohibition in fossil-fuel vehicle sales would come to fruition on the one hand, and disagrees with the 100% electrification strategy of other auto manufacturers on the other hand.
Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota, still shows no confidence towards EVs, and commented during an interview that most buyers are not looking to buy EVs, while the company will also refuse to market a certain model to the consumers.
“Toyota is like a department store. We offer various products, and it would be wrong for us to instruct consumers to buy whatever we want them to buy”, as commented by Toyoda, who believes that consumers should have the right to choose, and not forced to accept the sole power option.
Toyota has seemingly become even more pessimistic towards electrification after 20 years of all-out promotion on HEVs. Toyoda, when talking about the Californian government’s 2035 prohibition of fossil-fuel vehicles, commented that it would be extremely difficult to attain such target. “Some governments and auto manufacturers are rushing to accomplish electrification, though Toyota has no plans to follow that route”, commented Toyoda, who said the company’s current strategy is to achieve electrification for 1/3 of its product lines by 2030.
Toyoda believes that California’s prohibition of fossil-fuel vehicles by 2035 and the US government’s target in attaining 50% zero-emission vehicles in sales by 2030 are both difficult and impractical. Toyota estimates that there is a population of at least one billion among more than 200 countries in the world that is unable to obtain reliable power sources, let alone buying EVs.
Toyota, compared to the difficulties in EV popularization, believes that hydrogen vehicles is still the better solution, despite additional hardships in hydrogen sources and construction of gas refilling stations, which seem to be easy problems to deal with for Toyota.
Despite persistently thriving intensity in EV sales, the threshold remains quite high in EV procurement, such as high price tags, uneasy construction of charging piles, and power replenishment for long-distance travels, which indicates that EVs would only grow in scale after the corresponding infrastructures fall in place. Compared to charging or hydrogen refilling, perhaps Toyota would first need to resolve its wheel issue.
(Cover photo source: Toyota)