Customers to drive demand for greener cars, not legislation – Toyota
Toyota says consumer demand – not government regulation – will spur sales of lower-emissions vehiclesCar buyers will trump government regulations in the race to go green on our roads. That’s the forecast of Toyota Australia’s vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley.
Speaking at the launch of the new Toyota Corolla Cross, which sits alongside the C-HR in the compact SUV category, Hanley said consumer expectations are changing fast and car-makers need to react well before regulators in order to keep customers.
“Consumer expectations will be the greatest driver of CO2 reduction,” he said, adding that people increasingly expect their cars to have a lower CO2 footprint.
“Community expectation will drive this [the shift to zero-emissions motoring] a whole lot quicker and faster than even mandated emissions standards.”
His comments come as the federal government calls for industry feedback about planned CO2 emissions regulations for vehicles, and while the ACT and some lobby groups call on the ban of new combustion-powered vehicles by 2035.
Toyota has been vocal about calling for mandated goals rather than mandated technologies such as battery-electric vehicles, which is the tech that has boomed in popularity over the past two years.
The world’s and Australia’s biggest auto brand argues the enemy is CO2, not internal combustion engines.
About 30 per cent of Toyota’s sales are now hybrid models, which are powered purely by petrol but use around half the amount of fuel.
Toyota has made it clear it is considering five different technologies to lower the CO2 emissions of its future vehicles, including the HiLux, Fortuner, Prado and LandCruiser. Those technologies are hybrid, plug-in hybrid (PHEV), battery-electric (BEV), fuel-cell electric (FCEV) and internal combustion engines (ICE) running on hydrogen.
Hanley says the expectations from all companies – even those outside automotive – is that “you must care about the environment and you must demonstrate a plan to reduce any negatives footprint you may have”.
Toyota defends its late arrival to the battery-electric vehicle space by arguing it has significantly lowered its CO2 footprint by selling 300,000 hybrids over more than two decades.
However, as Tesla sales boom – the brand is now among the top sellers in the country – Toyota is still awaiting its first EV.
The delayed Toyota bZ4X mid-size electric SUV is now due on sale in Australia in the second half of 2023.
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