Toyota will accelerate the development of electric vehicles, the auto giant’s new chairman and CEO Koji Sato said on Monday, despite a report suggesting that electric vehicles could find themselves in a niche position alongside their peers in ICE vehicles for climate reasons.
In an announcement of new executive positions starting April 1, the world’s largest automaker said electrification would be one of three pillars for Toyota’s transformation into a “mobility company” , along with intelligence and diversification.
Toyota has been criticized for the slow adoption of BEVs. The automaker has focused more on hybrid vehicles in recent years.
“We have been preparing to create unique BEV vehicles for Toyota and Lexus. Through these efforts, we have come to see the kind of BEV we aim for,” Sato said at a press conference today.
“Now that the time is right, we will accelerate BEV development with a new approach.”
The executive said Toyota will aim to develop the next generation of BEVs for the Lexus brand by 2026, with everything from the battery and platform to how a BEV-optimized car is built at the same time which will expand its current line of BEVs.
Toyota’s new BEV push comes after an Anderson Economic Group report showed last week that falling U.S. gasoline prices by the end of 2022 returned the cost advantage to internal combustion engine vehicles by first time since the second quarter of 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2022, typical drivers of mid-priced ICE cars paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for 100 miles of driving. That cost was about $0.31 cheaper than the amount paid by mid-priced EV drivers who charge primarily at home, and more than $3 less than the cost borne by drivers of comparable EVs who charge commercially , according to the report.
Another study, conducted by the University of California and the Climate and Community Project, found last month that “the current dominant strategy for the auto industry—replacing ICE vehicles with electric vehicles without diminishing ownership and ‘car use’ is probably incompatible with keeping global warming below 1.5″. degrees”.
Demand for battery metals, particularly lithium, will require significant increases in mining and “large-scale mining leads to social and environmental harm, in many cases irreversibly damaging landscapes without the consent of affected communities,” he says the study.
The way to achieve climate goals is to prioritize public and active transit while reducing dependence on cars, the study’s authors point out.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More top reads from Oilprice.com:
