Toyota Chairman Says People Are Finally Seeing the Reality About EVs

livemint.com:

TOKYO—Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda, asked about electric-vehicle challenges including a recent lull in U.S. demand, said the industry was coming to recognize that there isn’t a single answer to reducing carbon emissions. “People are finally seeing reality," Toyoda said Wednesday, speaking in his capacity as the head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Toyoda, who stepped down this year as Toyota chief executive after nearly 14 years on the job, has long said the auto industry should hedge its bets by continuing to invest in hybrid gasoline-electric cars and other options beyond just electric vehicles. As EV sales momentum lags behind in the U.S., he may be enjoying an “I told you so" moment. “There are many ways to climb the mountain that is achieving carbon neutrality," Toyoda told a small group of reporters at the Japan Mobility Show, formerly the Tokyo Motor Show, which is opening this week for the first time in four years.

Japanese automakers, most prominently Toyota, have been more vocal than their Western peers about the challenges EVs face in the near term, including high costs, resource crunches and limited charging infrastructure. In China, the world’s largest car market by vehicle sales, Western and Japanese companies face a host of local challengers and an EV price war. While the early stages of the EV revolution shake out, Toyota and others have been leaning on hybrid vehicles as a bridging technology and studying the operations of front-runners including Tesla and China’s BYD.