{"id":300928,"date":"2024-02-10T15:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=300928"},"modified":"2024-02-10T15:00:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T14:00:35","slug":"how-toyota-accelerated-past-the-electric-car-slowdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=300928","title":{"rendered":"How Toyota accelerated past the electric car slowdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carmaker blazing its own trail as rivals miss out on hybrid gold rush.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Toyota employees last month, Akio Toyoda sounded slightly bruised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the world\u2019s biggest car maker described how he had been \u201cbeaten up\u201d by critics for refusing to bet all his company\u2019s chips on electric vehicles (EVs).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, he has doggedly championed a so-called multi-pathway approach that spans EVs, hybrids and even hydrogen-powered cars. The Telegraph<\/a> has the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision has infuriated climate activists who once praised Toyota for its eco-friendly Prius hatchback, while even industry insiders have wondered whether the company is making a strategic blunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to fight alone,\u201d Toyoda said to staff, according to a translation of his January remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now the industrialist\u2019s rivals are looking on in envy, as a slowdown in EV sales has left his company in pole position to capitalise on a surge in demand for hybrids.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toyota sold 10.3 million cars in 2023, an increase of 7.7pc compared to a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total included a combined 3.5 million hybrids and plug-in hybrids \u2013 a year-on-year increase of 32pc \u2013 but only 104,000 EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the year to the end of March, the Japanese giant is now forecasting profits of 4.5 trillion yen (\u00a324bn), up from 2.5 trillion yen previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoichi Miyazaki, executive vice president at Toyota, said hybrids were even selling strongly in China \u2013 the world\u2019s biggest market and producer of EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a realistic solution, hybrids are still favoured by our customers,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, rival manufacturers that have driven further ahead with EVs are now pumping the brakes, with Ford, Volkswagen and General Motors among those scaling back production<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After successfully targeting early adopters, they are finding the mass market much tougher to crack \u2013 with many consumers still put off by high prices<\/a> and worries about charging infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEVs have soaked up all of the early adopter and wealthy demand,\u201d explains Andrew Bergbaum, an automotive expert at consultancy AlixPartners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the costs still haven\u2019t come down to the point where they\u2019ve reached the mass market prices you see with internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHybrids are also considerably cheaper [than EVs], because the batteries in them are so much smaller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you couple that with range anxiety and concerns about EV resale values, it\u2019s a fairly understandable market phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carmaker blazing its own trail as rivals miss out on hybrid gold rush.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":300932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Carmaker blazing its own trail as rivals miss out on hybrid gold 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carmaker got mocked for rejecting EV hype\u2014not anymore. \u2018I want to congratulate Toyota\u2019\u00a0","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/10\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cI want to congratulate Toyota, which was attacked for saying it was never going to go all-electric and it was going to continue to make the cars people wanted to buy,\u201d said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, on Fox Business.","rel":"","context":"In \"electric vehicles (EVs)\"","block_context":{"text":"electric vehicles (EVs)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electric-vehicles-evs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0Toyoda-Hero-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0Toyoda-Hero-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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As a result, Kia has no immediate plans to build EVs for the mass market, instead concentrating on up-market cars.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1040.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1040.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1040.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1040.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1040.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":374294,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374294","url_meta":{"origin":300928,"position":5},"title":"Rearranging The EV Deckchairs on the\u00a0Titanic","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/09\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The long-awaited announcement of the new package for rollout of EVs.","rel":"","context":"In \"British business\"","block_context":{"text":"British business","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=british-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-Titanic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-Titanic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-Titanic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-Titanic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-Titanic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300928"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300935,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300928\/revisions\/300935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/300932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}