Toyota Chairman Rails Against EVs, Says They Will Never Dominate The Market

On Tuesday, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda explained on the company's website that electric vehicles will never dominate the vehicle market as hybrid and hydrogen-based cars take over the market in the near future. 

"No matter how much progress [EVs] make, I think they will still only have a 30% market share. Then, the remaining 70% will be [hybrid vehicles], [hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles], and hydrogen engines," he said, adding that EVs will never be able to take over the market given the limited availability of electricity in the developing world. Toyoda went on to explain that the company will have a plethora of vehicles available because consumers will determine what they want to drive, not governmental powers attempting to push EVs.

"[Gasoline] engine cars will definitely remain. This is something that customers and the market will decide, not regulatory values ​​or political power," he said, as reported by Newsmax. "One billion people around the world live in areas without electricity. In the case of Toyota, we also supply vehicles to these regions, so a single [EV] option cannot provide transportation for everyone." Toyoda remains focused on limiting CO2 in his vehicles and pointed out that the company has been at the forefront of that mission for decades. "What Toyota has that other companies don't have is [hybrid vehicles]. Thanks to the introduction of [hybrid vehicles] in Japan 20 to 30 years ago, Japan is the only developed country to have reduced CO2 emissions by 23%," he said. "The enemy is CO2. So, let's all think about reducing CO2 right away."

Toyota is making the same realization that American car companies like Ford are making. Electric vehicles are currently not technologically advanced nor cheap enough to justify widely advertising them to consumers. American consumers have repeatedly rejected EVs despite the various subsidies and tax incentives used to make them more competitive with gas-powered cars. 

Not only do EVs take a considerable amount of raw materials to produce from mines across the developing world, but they also have a limited range and do terribly in cold climates. Americans are rejecting electric vehicles across the board as demand has slumped significantly in recent months, and 2023 sales did not reach expectations. This is partly due to the high cost of EVs both for consumers and automakers, but for many Americans, the technology is simply not advanced enough to justify picking an electric vehicle over its gas-powered counterpart. Toyoda's prediction of the EV market is likely accurate, and it proves that the electric vehicle push is more artificial than natural.

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