Toyota CEO Predicts EV’s To Be Just 30 Percent Of Total Vehicles Sold By In North America In 2030
The CEO of Toyota is straightforward, stating that he thinks electric vehicles (EVs) will only make up 30 percent of the new car market in the US by 2030.
This is half of what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aimed for last year. Toyota, known for promoting hybrid cars, believes it’s smarter to purchase credits to meet the EPA’s requirements instead of spending money on battery electric vehicles (BEVs), according to its CEO.
In an interview with Automotive News, Toyota CEO Ted Ogawa said that the Japanese automaker plans to go with customer demand and in his view, that’s varying degrees of “electrification,” usually in the form of hybrids with petrol-burning engines.
Currently, the company is building a USD13.9 million battery complex in North Carolina to be used in its EVs and hybrids sold in North America. Since 2021, Toyota has invested about USD17 billion into its US manufacturing operations to build mostly hybrids.
“I know that EPA is now reconsidering what the regulation level should be. However, again, our starting point is what the customer demand should be.
So, for example, 2030 regulations said the new-car market, more than half of it should be BEV, but our current plan is like 30 percent,” Ogawa said. “We are respecting the regulation, but more important is customer demand.”
What about closing the gap between proposed light-vehicle emissions regulations and what Toyota sells? “That’s a tough question. Regulation-wise, we would have to prepare something like credit purchase,” he told Automotive News. “It’s difficult to say, but it’s not better.”
“Wasted investment is worse than the credit purchase,” he added.
Toyota is one of the top-selling automakers, but EVs accounted for less than 1 percent of total sales last year. “Of course, to compare the battery to Tesla, we are behind; that may be true,” he said.
“However, we are now catching up, not only the product but also the ecosystem surrounding the BEV area, such as the home charging or energy management.”
Moreover, Toyota in June last year held a technical briefing session, “Toyota Technical Workshop,” under the theme “Let’s Change the Future of Cars” and announced a variety of new technologies that will support its transformation into a mobility company.
At the time, Hiroki Nakajima, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, explained Toyota’s technology strategy and the direction of future car manufacturing.
Additionally, he also spoke on specific and diverse technologies, including concepts under development, which will help achieve the vision and policies that have been communicated so far.
Also speaking were Takero Kato, who has been appointed president of the newly established battery electric vehicle (BEV) Factory, and Mitsumasa Yamagata, who is scheduled to be appointed president of the Hydrogen Factory to be launched in July.
They elaborated on their respective strategies for the Toyota battery EV and hydrogen businesses.
