The world’s largest automaker, toyotaBattling criticism it lags behind rivals on electric vehicles, and is even working to try and stop the transition to a zero-emissions electric fleet.
But the automaker says it believes in a fully electric future. It just holds that future Toyotas won’t arrive in all markets at the same time.
Toyota was once considered a green vehicle pioneer. It introduced the Prius in 1997, the world’s mainstream hybrid vehicle. The Prius combined a gasoline-burning engine with an electric motor and small battery. This allowed drivers to dramatically increase their fuel economy compared to conventional internal combustion engine powered cars.
The new technology proved to be a sales sensation: Toyota has since offered hybrid versions of the rest of its lineup. The automaker has sold a total of 20 million hybrid cars, trucks and SUVs worldwide, and 5.4 million in the US alone.
But meanwhile, other automakers, inspired by ever tighter government regulation and the success of newcomers like the TeslaStarted investing in fully electric vehicles.
For a long time, Toyota leaders argued that there were fundamental engineering challenges to battery-powered electric vehicles – they take a long time to charge, require heavy and expensive batteries and still have limited range.
Auto industry analysts say those criticisms are less valid now given recent improvements in battery technology. More importantly, the companies have found a strong business case for EVs. Tesla is now the leading luxury brand in the United States.
Toyota’s new $35 billion investment announced in December 2021 includes a plan To introduce 30 electric models by 2030. That’s less than a quarter of the more than 130 models currently being built.,
At the same time though, Toyota said it would invest a similar amount in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Industry research firm Gartner expects gasoline-burning engines to account for about 50 percent of sales by the early 2030s.
“We still think that in 10 years, 50% of new vehicle sales will be gasoline,” said Mike Ramsey, vice president of Gartner’s CIO Research Group. “And if you look at the global footprint, that’s almost certainly going to be true, because you’re not going to see 50% market share, period, in Nigeria, in Iran, in Indonesia, period.”
Watch the video to learn more about Toyota’s singular approach to electric vehicle manufacturing.