Toyota believes that electric vehicles are not necessarily the only way forward and thus it will offer vehicles with many propulsion technologies for the foreseeable future.
“It’s too early to concentrate on one option,” said director Shigeki Terashi at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, per Automotive News. The comment was in response to a question about why the company wasn’t making a bold EV plan like Honda or GM.
Terashi argued that different technologies must be allowed to compete against each other in the marketplace in order to find the solution that best serves it. That’s why Toyota will continue to invest in hybrid and fuel-cell technologies in the years leading up to 2050.
Read Also: Polestar Reveals Climate Impact For Its EVs, Calls For Industry Transparency
“Some people love battery-electric vehicles but others don’t see the current technologies as convenient,” Toyota’s Chief Technology Officer Masahiko Maeda said. “In the end what matters is what customers choose.”
Toyota recently competed in a 24-hour race with a hydrogen-powered Corolla that used a converted combustion engine from a GR Yaris in order to prove that hydrogen engines can be a better, carbon-reduced solution for long distances.
The automaker also pointed to lifecycle emissions, which remain high for EVs, despite their low local emissions. Batteries, in particular, are carbon-intensive to mine and manufacture, though Polestar found that its vehicles gain a carbon advantage over gas-powered vehicles after just 31,000 miles on the road. Another study argued that the cost of producing hydrogen, especially if there was a sudden, intense demand on the supply, could lead to a fossil-fuel backslide.
Toyota recently came under fire from investors for what they felt was an incorrect stance on green technologies and its anti-environmental governmental lobbying efforts. That led to a public recommitment to green technologies.
Indeed, despite its commitment to multiple fuel types, Toyota is actually investing in EVs, like the recently announced bZ4X that it’s making in partnership with Subaru.
