Toyota is not very clear that the future of mobility is going to be 100% electric and they are more committed to hybrid technology.
We are living in a moment of tremendous confusion in the automotive sector, with voices for and against the electric car, announcements of a ban on combustion cars in 2035, countries that advocate synthetic fuels… In short, chaos, both for industry and consumers. But, in the midst of this storm, it pays to listen carefully to Toyota.
The Japanese are usually correct in their approaches to the future. It already happened when it opted for the hybrid car with the Toyota Prius and, currently, thanks to the number of hybrid vehicles it sells, a range of sports cars without electrification can be allowed, under the name GR.
Now, we wonder if Toyota will be right again with its thinking about the electric car. And it is that it is not very clear that the future of mobility is going to be 100% electric.
Toyota is always right, will it be right again with its electric car thinking?
Some senior managers of the Japanese company have been against the 100% electric car on several occasions. For example, the executive vice president of Sales in North America, Jack Hollis, went so far as to affirm that “there is not a large enough customer base to drive the demand for electric cars.”
Instead, it does rely on hybrid technology. It is not that Toyota has stopped believing in electrification, but that hybrid cars, in their different forms (Mild-Hybrid, HEV and PHEV) represent a much better option for mobility, not only today, but also in the future. future.
There are those who argue that Toyota’s position is conditioned by its low sales of electric cars. Although the Japanese firm is a leader in hybrid vehicles, things are not going so well in the segment of 100% electric vehicles.
In 2022, it only sold 1,200 units of its Toyota bZ4x worldwide, of which six were registered in Spain. Even the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai outsold the electric SUV, with 2,000 units worldwide, despite a shortage of hydrogen.
Bet on hybrids
It is understandable that Toyota continues to bet on a technology, the hybrid, which has provided such good results for more than a decade. Without forgetting either hydrogen, of which the Japanese brand is one of the main defenders.
In fact, Toyota is immersed in the development of hydrogen and has already used liquid hydrogen in a competition car with positive results.
Toyota will continue to invest in electric cars, because it is obliged to do so if it wants to continue selling cars in the future, especially in Europe, where the ban on combustion engines continues in 2035, after the EU has reached an agreement with Germany to allow e-fuel.
Different types of technologies
But the company’s electricity strategy has undergone a change. Initially, they had planned to launch a total of 30 electric models until 2030, but this is no longer the case: it is going to invest 38,000 million dollars, almost 35,000 million euros, in a new platform for electric vehicles, but it is not going to set aside the hybrid technology.
For Toyota, the future will be hybrid and it thinks that time is on its side, because the scarcity of materials and charging infrastructures will show that you cannot bet everything on one card, on a single technology, but on a mix of different types of vehicles.