To put this in context: this is not the first time Toyota advocates anti-EV point of view.
In the beginning of this year the same guy (Akio Toyoda) was spreading all the EV FUD there is: electrification will tank the (Japanese) economy, the electric grid will collapse, no-one needs electric cars etc.
He just might be right about tanking the Japanese economy but not because "EV bad" but because Toyota and Honda and their suppliers are big parts of the economy and they are laggards among laggards on EV adoption front.
And it's not just words but money and lobbying: Toyota joined Trump's lawsuit against EPA (now dropped) and is among the largest anti-EV lobbyists, in the great company of oil giants. Anti-EV lobbying means: lobbying against increased fuel efficiency standards and ICE bans.
Given that China is already 30% EV, Europe ~25% their position doesn't seem rational but purely talking their book and trying to not get killed by mistakes they made in the last 5-10 years.
Until mid-2022 they were selling more hydrogen cars (1) than EV cars (0). Hence their bizarre "we're pro EV but ALSO pro hydrogen" stance. Hydrogen lost and there's no path to hydrogen becoming a thing for passenger cars.
They are also waiting their time working on manual transmission for electric cars. It's peak stupid.
But most importantly they only have 1 EV on sale (with a genius name of bz4x) and it doesn't sells well.
Rumor has it that they just decided that their e-TNGA platform used in bZ4X is not cost-competitive with Tesla and started working on a new EV platform that won't be ready in 4 years.
Japan as a whole bet heavily on hydrogen. The rest of the world is going to battery electric vehicles, and the Japanese auto manufacturers are way behind the curve.
In the beginning of this year the same guy (Akio Toyoda) was spreading all the EV FUD there is: electrification will tank the (Japanese) economy, the electric grid will collapse, no-one needs electric cars etc.
He just might be right about tanking the Japanese economy but not because "EV bad" but because Toyota and Honda and their suppliers are big parts of the economy and they are laggards among laggards on EV adoption front.
And it's not just words but money and lobbying: Toyota joined Trump's lawsuit against EPA (now dropped) and is among the largest anti-EV lobbyists, in the great company of oil giants. Anti-EV lobbying means: lobbying against increased fuel efficiency standards and ICE bans.
Given that China is already 30% EV, Europe ~25% their position doesn't seem rational but purely talking their book and trying to not get killed by mistakes they made in the last 5-10 years.
Until mid-2022 they were selling more hydrogen cars (1) than EV cars (0). Hence their bizarre "we're pro EV but ALSO pro hydrogen" stance. Hydrogen lost and there's no path to hydrogen becoming a thing for passenger cars.
They are also waiting their time working on manual transmission for electric cars. It's peak stupid.
But most importantly they only have 1 EV on sale (with a genius name of bz4x) and it doesn't sells well.
Rumor has it that they just decided that their e-TNGA platform used in bZ4X is not cost-competitive with Tesla and started working on a new EV platform that won't be ready in 4 years.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exclus...