EVs won’t be mainstream for a while, says Toyota
Making the right car for all customers will underpin Toyota’s product plans and powertrain mix moving forwardToyota CEO Akio Toyoda has spoken about his company’s perceived reticence to shift to an EV-centric product mix, suggesting that widespread electric vehicle uptake will not happen as quickly as the media, government bodies and Toyota’s competitors might think.
The 66-year-old, who sees himself as a ‘car guy’, pointed to the long-proclaimed but slow-to-arrive wave of autonomous vehicles by way of comparison.
“Just like the fully autonomous cars that we are all supposed to be driving by now, EVs are just going to take longer to become mainstream than media would like us to believe,” Toyoda said at a US dealer conference in Las Vegas.
“In the meantime, you have many options for customers.”
Lack of charging infrastructure, high prices and regional variety of choice were also discussed as potential obstacles to a faster-paced EV rollout.
Toyota claims it will spend $US70 billion ($A107.7b) over the next nine years in the area of electrified vehicles, with half that amount earmarked for battery-electric vehicle (BEV) technology.
The world’s biggest car-maker says it will have 15 EVs on sale by 2025 and it is targeting 3.5 million EV sales worldwide by 2030.
This equates to a third of its global annual sales, but many of Toyota’s competitors have committed to selling a higher proportion of EVs – and in some cases only EVs – by the end of this decade.
The Japanese brand’s first EV, the 2023 Toyota bZ4X, will launch in Australia next year with a potential range of 516km from a single charge, but Toyota admits it won’t be cheap.
By way of comparison, Ford – a much smaller company than Toyota – is targeting sales of 1.5 million EVs by 2030, against an investment of $US30 billion ($A46b). This represents 40 per cent of its global sales.
Ford already has three EVs on sale in the US and Ford Australia has promised to release five electrified models by 2024, starting with the Ford E-Transit Custom, which like the Toyota bZ4X has also been pushed back to early 2023 for Australia.
Toyota claims it has thus far prevented the emission of more than 145 million tonnes of CO2, thanks to more than 20 million hybrid vehicle sales worldwide over more than two decades.
It says this is equivalent to the CO2 impact of 5.5 million EVs.
“Toyota can produce eight 40-mile (55km) plug-in hybrids for every one 320-mile (500km) battery-electric vehicle and save up to eight times the carbon emitted into the atmosphere,” said Toyoda, who also expressed concerns about the shortage of battery-grade nickel and lithium over the coming decade.
It will also continue its R&D efforts in the hydrogen space.
Toyoda’s remarks mirror those of Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley, who said recently: “we all want carbon neutrality, we all want to get down to zero emissions, but you've got to do it in a practical and well-thought-out way”.
Related: Toyota: We’re not behind on EVs
Related: Which car brands are going all-electric – and when?
Related: Wheels falling off Toyota’s first EV
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