Toyota says electric vehicles are overhyped

There is too much hype surrounding electric vehicles (EVs), one of the world’s top automakers, Japan’s Toyota, says, noting that the electricity needed to charge electric cars would strain grids and increase carbon emissions.

If all cars in Japan were electric, the country would be short of electricity in the summer, while the infrastructure for a 100-percent EV fleet would cost the equivalent of up to US$358 billion, The Wall Street Journal quoted Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda as saying at a press conference in his role as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Japan is reportedly considering a ban on the sale of new gasoline-fueled cars in the middle of the 2030s, reports emerged earlier this month. 

“When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” Toyoda said, as carried by the Journal.

A rush to ban gasoline and diesel cars would destroy the automotive industry and leave millions of people out of a job, Toyota’s president also said.  

Toyota has been working to develop hybrid electric vehicles and hydrogen-fueled cars, but it also says that it plans to “accelerate the popularization of battery electric vehicles with more than 10 models available in world markets by the early 2020s.”

Toyota is selling the Mirai fuel cell vehicle running on hydrogen, and plans to boost tenfold the global sales of the Mirai with the second-generation Mirai. The new Toyota Mirai will have a 30-percent increase in driving range to around 650 kilometers (404 miles), the carmaker said at the end of last month.

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“The introduction of the new Mirai will see Toyota target deeper market penetration with a 10-fold expansion in sales volume. This growth will be supported by the new model’s stronger performance and greater customer appeal, notably as a more affordable vehicle with a selling price reduced by around 20 percent,” Toyota said.

The Japanese carmaker also plans to become the first auto manufacturer to sell an EV with a solid-state battery in the early 2020s, Nikkei Asia reported last week.

This article was originally published on Oilprice.com