Photo: Toyota
Among some of the things that spark to mind when thinking about Toyota are "reliable cars," "boring cars," and "hybrid cars." Quite a long time ago, the Prius was the primary recipient of the black smoke from pickup trucks rolling coal, but now things have changed.
With the advent of the electric vehicles, the fact that the Toyota actually had a gasoline engine tucked in there somewhere gave it bonus points in the eyes of those who see battery-powered cars as the death of all things good. The EVs were the new enemy, which meant the Prius kind of lost the spot light.
That wasn't all good news for the Japanese manufacturer, though, as it wasn't just the global warming skeptics who lost their interest, but also those who would have bought the car. The sales started taking a dip after 2010 with the trend being interrupted only last year, despite the new model's design being highly controversial.
However, in an interview with CNBC, the company's chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, revealed Toyota isn't in any hurry to join the EV arms race and will only fall in line because of government conditioning.
“I must say up front that we’re not against electric vehicles," Uchiyamada-san said. "But in order for electric vehicles to cover long distances, they currently need to be loaded with a lot of batteries that take a considerable amount of time to charge. There’s also the issue of battery life, But as laws and regulations (that encourage the development of electric vehicles) come into effect in places like China and the U.S., car makers will have no choice but to roll out electric vehicles or risk going out of business. Toyota is no exception, but we’re skeptical there would be a rapid shift to pure electric vehicles, given questions over user convenience.”
If you look at everything he said, he's one hundred percent right. EVs aren't ready to substitute ICE cars completely just yet due to their limited range and relatively long charging times. And yet sitting out can be a dangerous tactic, unless they secretly believe that electric cars are destined to fail.
If not, then a wiser choice would be to invest, be a driving force and lead the way for this new technology, much like Toyota itself has done with hybrid drives. Waiting until all the problems are solved will leave you with a huge handicap once you decide to join the arena, not to mention it'll be an arena you're not very familiar with.
Within a year, Toyota has fallen from the top spot as the world's largest carmaker all the way to third after Volkswagen overtook it and Renault-Nissan merged with Mitsubishi to jump straight to the first position. It's still a force to be reckoned, but all empires met their demise at some point due to poor decision making. We'll see if that turns out to be the case for Toyota as well.
That wasn't all good news for the Japanese manufacturer, though, as it wasn't just the global warming skeptics who lost their interest, but also those who would have bought the car. The sales started taking a dip after 2010 with the trend being interrupted only last year, despite the new model's design being highly controversial.
However, in an interview with CNBC, the company's chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, revealed Toyota isn't in any hurry to join the EV arms race and will only fall in line because of government conditioning.
“I must say up front that we’re not against electric vehicles," Uchiyamada-san said. "But in order for electric vehicles to cover long distances, they currently need to be loaded with a lot of batteries that take a considerable amount of time to charge. There’s also the issue of battery life, But as laws and regulations (that encourage the development of electric vehicles) come into effect in places like China and the U.S., car makers will have no choice but to roll out electric vehicles or risk going out of business. Toyota is no exception, but we’re skeptical there would be a rapid shift to pure electric vehicles, given questions over user convenience.”
If you look at everything he said, he's one hundred percent right. EVs aren't ready to substitute ICE cars completely just yet due to their limited range and relatively long charging times. And yet sitting out can be a dangerous tactic, unless they secretly believe that electric cars are destined to fail.
If not, then a wiser choice would be to invest, be a driving force and lead the way for this new technology, much like Toyota itself has done with hybrid drives. Waiting until all the problems are solved will leave you with a huge handicap once you decide to join the arena, not to mention it'll be an arena you're not very familiar with.
Within a year, Toyota has fallen from the top spot as the world's largest carmaker all the way to third after Volkswagen overtook it and Renault-Nissan merged with Mitsubishi to jump straight to the first position. It's still a force to be reckoned, but all empires met their demise at some point due to poor decision making. We'll see if that turns out to be the case for Toyota as well.
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