IS TOYOTA afraid of the consumer’s switch to electric vehicles (EVs), now being led by Tesla that recently boasts of its car horn that sounds like a drunkard’s fart, snake’s hissing sound, or a goat’s bleat in its latest models? In a yearender report to members of Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda voiced out an apprehension against the “excessive hype” over EVs. He argues that EVs also emit carbon and there are prohibitive transition costs.
Toyoda, who’s also the president of Toyota Motor, said Japan “would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. The infrastructure needed to support a fleet consisting entirely of EVs would cost Japan between ¥14 trillion and ¥37 trillion, the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion,” according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
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Recently when Toyota s president Akio Toyoda spoke of the limitations and the future of electric cars, it is easy to misquote him and it s important not to do that. He knows that electric cars are the future and didn t even pretend they are not. He was basically saying that a rushed transition to a niche vehicle whose full supply chain doesn’t deliver the ecological benefits its advocates may worsen carbon dioxide emissions.
Japan wants to eliminate sales of gas-powered vehicles in approximately 15 years as it looks to morph into a carbon free country by 2050.
A plan announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last week calls for the automotive industry to go carbon-free by the mid-2030s by bolstering renewables and hydrogen. Speaking of Japan’s intent to achieve net zero carbon emissions in 30 years, Suga said green investment doesn’t need to be a burden but is instead an opportunity for growth.
CBS News notes that Japan’s strategy outlines a roadmap to achieving the goals through various sectors and projects a 30-50 per cent increase in electricity demand. The plan also calls for Japan’s use of renewables to be tripled and for the use of nuclear power to be increased.
If electric vehicles are to become the transportation of choice in America and Oklahoma, it must be for the same reason the gasoline engine rose to prominence –
A recent article in
The Wall Street Journal detailed the skepticism of Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, toward electric vehicles. This is a big deal because Toyota was the third-largest vehicle manufacturer in terms of vehicle sales in the United States during 2019.
Mr. Toyoda criticized what he described as “excessive hype over electric vehicles, saying advocates failed to consider the carbon emitted by generating electricity and the costs of an EV transition.” He continued:
“Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. The infrastructure needed to support a fleet consisting entirely of EVs would cost Japan between ¥14 trillion and ¥37 trillion, the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion, he said.