In his tenure as president and CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda has been criticised for slowing the progress of electric vehicle development. Succeeded by Koji Sato at the beginning of this year, Toyoda has been a proponent of a more balanced approach towards carbon reduction, instead of an EV-focused approach.
Now, Toyoda says his resistance to an EV-only path is vindicated as the EV segment has seen slowing growth in the United States. “There are many ways to climb the mountain that is carbon neutrality,” Toyoda told reporters at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 this week, reported Carscoops.
While EV segment growth has slowed, it continues to grow nonetheless, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that global sales of electric vehicles grew by 63% in 2022, though that rate has reduced to 49% in 2023 so far. The slowing adoption rate in the US has seen automakers General Motors and Ford consider slowing down production of elcetric pick-up trucks, the report wrote.
Now chairman of the board of directors at the Japanese manufacturer, Toyoda claims the development is proof that “if regulations are created based on ideals, it is regular users who are the ones who suffer.”
These sentiments were echoed by the president and CEO of Toyota Motor Asia Pacifc (TMAP) Hao Quoc Tien, who spoke at a media briefing ahead of the Japan Mobility Show 2023. If Toyota had carried on with a single-minded focus on EVs, it would lead to Southeast Asian markets – including Malaysia – fall behind even further in terms of EV adoption due to limitations of charging infrastructure, Hao said.
Toyota estimates that between 20% to 30% of sales in Asia will be EVs, and it continues to work hard to reduce carbon emissions across a range of technologies for the other 70% that is comprised of non-EVs, via what it terms a multi-pathway approach to sustainability, Hao said.
This multi-pronged approach consists of the internal combustion engine (petrol or diesel), bio-fuel compressed natural gas (CNG), hybrid electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), battery electric vehicle (BEV, or EV) and the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV).
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