A leadership change at Toyota is unlikely to alter the automaker’s EV strategy.
Akio Toyoda recently announced his transition to president after 14 years as CEO of the automaker founded by his grandfather, with Koji Sato being appointed as Toyota’s next CEO. However, the automaker’s stance on electric vehicles—that they are not the only solution to climate change—remains consistent throughout the transition.
Toyota Prius XLE 2023
In a recent presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Toyota chief scientist Gill Pratt argued that the all-electric strategies developed by several manufacturers announced cars will not meet emission reduction targets. auto news.
Pratt’s argument, which you can see here for the updated form, or lower as Toyota itself presented in December 2021, relies heavily on a finite supply of lithium for the battery, which will force a choice between the available lithium allocation across many smaller hybrid battery packs or focus on larger packs for electric vehicles.
Toyota fears lithium deficit will hinder dramatic EV shift
Pratt presents a hypothetical model of a fleet of 100 internal combustion vehicles with average emissions of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer traveled and enough lithium to generate 100 kWh of battery capacity.
If lithium were used for a single 100 kWh pack, the 100-car fleet would still have 99 internal combustion vehicles and only one electric vehicle, resulting in an average emissions of 248.5 g/km. If the same amount of lithium were used to make 1.1 kWh battery packs, it would generate 90 hybrids and reduce overall emissions by as much as 205 g/km, Pratt argued in the presentation.
Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid 2023
This is in line with Toyota’s previously discussed positions, which have emphasized combining hybrid vehicles, as well as fuel cell powertrains and even hydrogen-burning engines, into a deflationary solution. overall emissions rather than relying solely on EVs.
While a battery factory can be built in two or three years, Pratt argues, expanding a new lithium mine can take more than 15 years.
In a video released in November 2021, Pratt argues that trying multiple ideas to reduce emissions is the most realistic approach, noting that technology predictions are often unreliable. He cites the hype around self-driving cars as a recent example and notes that Toyota has taken a similar approach in that case, studying both autonomous driving and driver assistance concepts. instead of focusing on the second concept.
“The risks of the climate crisis are too great to make the mistake of focusing on too few possibilities,” he said in the video, noting that Toyota is investing in electric vehicles, but argued that “ Diversified solutions will reduce carbon emissions sooner.”
However, while Toyota is investing in electric vehicles, outgoing CEO Toyoda said he sees US target of 50% of EV sales by 2030 is “very difficult”, and that 85% of Toyota cars will still have exhaust pipes by the end of the decade. Toyota’s resistance to California and other states seeking more electric vehicles have also given the company some much less favorable views with environmentalists in recent years.
Toyota’s recent rollout of EVs also has a volatile aspect. The automaker last fall reported pause some of its EV development as part of an extensive review. Recently, Toyota seems to have given the green light to a dedicated EV platform until the end of the decade, though this doesn’t seem to have much to do with an executive change as Toyoda had assumed it would come.
Between these reports and a change at the top, Toyota hasn’t recently issued an update on how any of these might affect Toyota’s vehicle goals. But given the recent renewal of its argument, that may soon be the case.
