Following criticism, Toyota Motor is sticking to its electric vehicle strategy, which includes hybrids like the Prius.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said Thursday that the business will proceed with plans to provide a variety of so-called electric vehicles in the near future.
Toyota intends to invest over $70 billion in electrified vehicles over the next nine years, including $35 billion in all-electric battery technologies.
LAS VEGAS – Toyota Motor is sticking by its electric vehicle strategy, which includes hybrids like the Prius, despite criticism from some investors and environmentalist groups that the firm is moving too slowly toward EVs.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, who has built a corporate strategy around the idea that EVs aren’t the only solution for automakers to achieve carbon neutrality, said Thursday that the company will move forward with plans to offer an array of so-called electrified vehicles for the foreseeable future, ranging from hybrids and plug-in hybrids to all-electric and hydrogen electric vehicles.
Toyoda addressed the need to persuade sceptics of the company’s strategy, such as government officials focusing on all-electric battery vehicles, saying the automaker will “present the hard facts” about consumer adoption and the overall environmental impact of producing EVs versus hybrid electrified vehicles.
Toyota claims to have sold more than 20 million electrified vehicles globally since the Prius debuted in 1997. According to the firm, those sales saved 160 million tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to the impact of 5.5 million all-electric battery automobiles.
Toyoda’s words matched those he made to hundreds of Toyota dealers and employees on Wednesday, when he stated that the business will play “with all the cards in the deck” and offer a diverse range of vehicles to all customers.
That’s our plan, and we’re sticking to it,” Toyoda said in a tape of his remarks presented to reporters. Toyoda has characterised himself as a “car man or car nerd.”
Toyoda reiterated the company’s belief that all-electric car adoption will “take longer to become mainstream” than many believe. He stated that it will be “challenging” to meet new legislation that call for the prohibition of traditional cars with internal combustion engines by 2035, as California and New York have stated they will do.
The corporation claims that this strategy is fair since not all parts of the world will embrace EVs at the same rate due to high car costs and a lack of infrastructure.
Environmental organisations such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace have attacked Toyota’s plan, placing the Japanese carmaker at the bottom of its auto-industry decarbonization list for the past two years.
Toyota is to invest nearly $70 billion on electrified cars over the next nine years, including $35 billion in all-electric battery technology. It intends to offer over 70 electrified cars globally by 2025.
Toyota intends to sell around 3.5 million all-electric vehicles per year by 2030, which is only about one-third of its current yearly sales.
