Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda has reinforced his company’s commitment to prioritising hybrid vehicles (HEVs) over battery-electric vehicles (EVs or BEVs), outlining that hybrids are its ideal way forward in terms of reducing total CO2 emissions.
Speaking through an interpreter in a recent interview with Automotive News, Toyoda-san said Toyota is as committed to reducing the environmental impact of cars as any other brand, but has adopted a cost- and time-effective way to go about reducing its carbon emissions.
“When the term ‘carbon neutrality’ started to become popular and we started to hear about it, we set our target as a company saying that for us, the enemy is carbon,” he said.
“The way that we thought about it was that we’re not going to contribute to achieving carbon neutrality just by building BEVs, but we have to focus on things that we can do now so that, immediately, we can reduce CO2 from the air.
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“We looked at ourselves [and asked] ‘what can we do with the things that we have to contribute to carbon neutrality?’ That was the base of how we made our decision in those times, and that has not changed now, and will not change for the future.”
Toyoda-san is referring to the widespread rollout of hybrid vehicles, which dominate the Japanese brand’s current model range.
Toyota is credited with creating the first mass-produced hybrid car in the late 1990s, and has continued to develop the technology to the market-leading status it holds today.
The company’s passenger car lineup is now dominated by hybrids, evidenced by the Japanese brand’s Australian axing of all petrol versions of cars that offer hybrid options in 2024.
Hybrids continue to play a significant role in Toyota’s global efforts too, not least in its home country. Toyoda-san claims that over the past five years, the focus on hybrids played a larger role in reducing Japanese CO2 emissions than EVs.
Above: Toyota Hybrid range
“If you can check the data for each country about the CO2 emission situation for the past five years, it’s going to be very clear,” Toyoda-san said.
“For Japan, we had this weapon of hybrid vehicles, so with the hybrid vehicles, we were able to reduce 23 per cent of CO2 emissions in the same [time], and it was the only country that was able to achieve that.”
Toyoda-san added that his company has produced and delivered upwards of 27 million hybrids to date, and claimed that figure was “equivalent to nine million BEVs in terms of the contribution to carbon neutrality”.
“The hybrids that we made and sold had the same impact as nine million BEVs on the road, but if we were to make nine million BEVs in [Japan] it would have actually increased the CO2 emissions, not reduced, because we are relying on thermal powerplants.”
Despite that, Toyoda-san reaffirmed that HEVs aren’t the only way forward, pointing to Toyota’s continued development of internal combustion petrol and diesel engines (ICEs), as well as EVs, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
Toyota recently revealed the next-generation RAV4 mid-size SUV (above), which will be the brand’s first PHEV in Australia. The Mirai FCEV is currently being used by corporate fleets and government partners locally via very limited leases, too.
The Japanese auto giant is also part of an alliance with Subaru and Mazda to develop lower-emission ICEs into the future.
“I think we shouldn’t just focus on [BEV] … but we should look at all the options that we have and work in all directions,” Toyoda-san said.
“That will be similar to thinking as a person of the planet, not just from one perspective, but thinking about the whole planet, and then we can think about the various options and take the movements to reduce CO2 as much as possible.
“I believe if everyone can support this way of thinking, it will be for the benefit of all the stakeholders too.”
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