Top Toyota Scientist Throws Cold Water on Electric Vehicle Push

A Toyota logo at a Toyota dealership in Zaventem, Belgium, on Nov. 25, 2022. (Johanna Geron/Reuters)

A top Toyota scientist warned against the sudden push toward electric vehicles for now, ahead of a Group of Seven summit in Japan.

Last month, environment and energy ministers at the G7 conference in Hokkaido, Japan, pledged to reduce vehicle emissions by 2035, without announcing any deadlines or short-term goals in the meantime, reported Bloomberg.

Accelerating the transition toward expensive battery electric vehicles (BEV) would encourage drivers to hold on to their combustion-powered cars for longer, said Gill Pratt, Toyota’s chief scientist and CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, to reporters in Hiroshima on May 18.

The Toyota executive still called for subsidies and restrictions to reduce the use of combustion cars and make EVs more attractive to customers who can afford them.

He also called for hybrids to be on the roads for longer and that gas-electric vehicles are a better fit for lower-income consumers.

Toyota to Continue Hybrid Car Production Due to Delayed EV Rollout

Scientists at Toyota admitted that the transition to EVs would take longer than expected and that a combination of hybrids and other alternative-powered vehicles would do a better job at lowering emissions faster for now.

“Eventually, resource limitations will end, but for many years we will not have enough battery material and renewable recharging resources for a BEV-only solution,” Pratt said.

He said that the shortage of battery-making materials and charging stations will eventually be resolved, “but it will take decades for battery material mines, renewable-power generation facilities, transmission lines, and seasonal energy-storage facilities to scale up.”

The outgoing Chairman of Toyota and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Akio Toyoda, called EVs “an extremely important option,” at a conference this week.

Toyoda, the grandson of the founder of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer, was a pioneer in developing and selling hybrids, fuel cell vehicles, and non-EV alternatives.

“The goal is to do something about global warming,” said Toyoda, who ran the car company for 14 years until this April.

“The mutual enemy is carbon dioxide,” he said.

New CEO Promises Increased EV Car Sales

The new CEO, Koji Sato, said that Toyota would sell 1.5 million EVs annually and roll out 10 new fully electric models by 2026.

Toyota sold 38,000 EVs at the end of the 2022 fiscal year in March and had targeted 200,000 in sales for fiscal year 2023.

Environmental groups have criticized Toyota for delaying a push to go fully electric and for allowing Tesla and China’s BYD to take the lead in battery-powered cars, despite pioneering hybrid technology vehicles.

Toyota and other Japanese carmakers have promised to rapidly expand production in the next few years.

However, critics have questioned whether Toyoda would make its goal to halve emissions by 2035 and become carbon neutral by 2050,

Sato has defended the company’s policies and has refuted the accusations by environmentalists.