Toyota’s Top Scientist Reiterates that the World Lacks the Resources to Go All in on Electric Cars

May 19, 2023

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Nicholas Takahashi and Craig Trudell (Bloomberg/South China Morning Post) Toyota Motor’s top scientist warned that transitioning to electric vehicles too quickly could lead drivers to hold on to old gas guzzlers and called for hybrids to be given a longer leash ahead of a Group of Seven leaders summit in Japan.

Subsidies and restrictions targeting combustion cars will make EVs attractive for customers who can afford them, but gas-electric vehicles remain a better fit for other consumers, Gill Pratt, Toyota’s chief scientist and chief executive officer of the Toyota Research Institute, told reporters in Hiroshima on Thursday.

It’s an oft-repeated argument from the world’s No. 1 carmaker: that the transition to fully electric vehicles will take longer than people expect, and that a multipronged approach that includes hybrids and other alternatives will reduce emissions faster in the meantime. Environmental groups have criticised Toyota for taking too long to go fully electric and letting Elon Musk’s Tesla and China’s BYD take the EV lead.

“Eventually, resource limitations will end, but for many years we will not have enough battery material and renewable recharging resources for a BEV-only solution,” Pratt said, referring to battery-electric vehicles. READ MORE

Not enough resources for EVs to be only cleaner car option, Toyota says (Reuters)

Auto expert concedes a lack of resources will plague and delay EV push for decades (Washington Examiner)

Toyota Calls On Science To Tell EV-Only Extremists That They’re Wrong (Inside EVs)

Toyota to EV-only extremists: Science says you're wrong (Automotive News)

Toyota Says Data Proves EV-Only Policy Is Worse For The Planet (Car Scoops)

Targeting Toyota for Its Electric-Vehicle Heresy: Public pensions and proxy advisers try to punish the company using corporate governance as a pretext. (Wall Street Journal)

Toyota shareholders reject proposal demanding better performance on climate change (Associated Press)

Excerpt from Reuters: Gill Pratt, chief executive of the Toyota Research Institute, told reporters that BEVs could make a positive difference in reducing climate change in countries such as Norway, which has a lot of renewable infrastructure.

But in other parts of the world, where coal is still used to produce power, hybrids were better for CO2 emissions, he added.

"Battery materials and renewable charging infrastructure will eventually be plentiful," Pratt said in Hiroshima, a day before the start of a Group of Seven leaders summit in the Japanese city.

"But it's going to take decades for battery material mines, renewable power generation, transmission lines and seasonal energy-storage facilities to scale up."

Toyota, which seeks to sell 1.5 million battery-powered cars by 2026 and introduce 10 new fully electric models, has frequently argued that reaching carbon neutrality will mean the use of hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.

Reuters reported last year how Toyota's former chief executive, Akio Toyoda, lobbied the Japanese government to make clear it supported hybrid vehicles as much as BEVs or risk losing the auto industry's support. READ MORE

Excerpt from Car Scoops: But if EVs produce no emissions, why would we want to make more hybrids? Pratt says it comes down to the availability of lithium, the mineral used in the production of battery packs. He predicts that the car industry will soon be hit by a shortage of lithium, as well as other minerals used in battery production, and also a lack of recharging points as the number of EVs in production skyrockets demand.

And if there isn’t enough lithium available to power tens of millions of EVs, it makes sense to share it out between hybrid vehicles. Pratt says making millions of hybrids will have a greater impact on CO2 output than using the same quantity of lithium to create a smaller number of pure EVs.

...

In a hypothetical model outlined to Automotive News, Pratt starts with 100 combustion vehicles that emit 250g/km of CO2. If you have enough lithium to make 100 kWh of batteries you could build one top-spec long range Tesla but the remaining 99 vehicles would still be combustion-powered, giving a fleet CO2 figure of 248.5 g/km. Spread that 100 kWh out between 90 traditional hybrids though, leaving only 10 plain combustion cars, and the average emissions drops to 205 g/km.

This doesn’t mean Toyota isn’t interested in EVs. It recently announced a Tesla Model 3-sized bZ3X sedan for China to complement its bZ4X SUV. But the company is adamant that rival firms like Honda, Cadillac, Volvo and others, are making a mistake by throwing all their weight behind pure EVs.

“There is a crunch that’s going to come,” Pratt told Automotive News. “Time is on our side. These shortages — not only of battery materials, but of charging infrastructure — will make it abundantly clear that one size does not fit all, and that the best answer is actually a mix of different vehicle types.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Associated Press: The investor proposal was initiated by AkademikerPension, a $20 billion Danish investment fund. It accused Toyota Motor Corp. of lobbying to weaken efforts by governments around the world to phase out the internal combustion engine.

Shareholders applauded in rejecting the proposal, as expected, at the meeting in Toyota city, central Japan. Some 3,800 shareholders packed a hall at Toyota headquarters. The exact number of the ballots cast will not be disclosed until Thursday, but were taken into account in the vote.

The majority of Toyota shares are held by the company and its group companies, retired employees and others sympathetic to the company’s perspective.

...

The shareholders’ proposal also challenged the reappointment of Toyota’s chairman, Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company founder and a board director, arguing the company has lagged in keeping up with the global shift to battery electric vehicles.

Toyoda and other company officials defended their green record, noting Toyota is aiming for carbon neutrality, or net-zero carbon emissions, in its lineup by 2050. READ MORE