The chair of Toyota, the world's largest automaker, said sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will never dominate the global market.
In remarks published Tuesday on the company's website, Akio Toyoda, whose grandfather founded the company in 1937, said, "No matter how much progress [EVs] make, I think they will still only have a 30% market share. Then, the remaining 70% will be [hybrid vehicles], [hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles], and hydrogen engines.
"[Gasoline] engine cars will definitely remain. This is something that customers and the market will decide, not regulatory values or political power."
Toyoda stressed that because so many people around the world live without electricity, it is important for his company to produce a variety of vehicles instead of focusing on EVs alone.
"One billion people around the world live in areas without electricity," he said. "In the case of Toyota, we also supply vehicles to these regions, so a single [EV] option cannot provide transportation for everyone."
A record 1,189,051 EVs were sold in the U.S. in 2023, according to Kelly Blue Book, the first time sales exceeded 1 million. The market share for EVs in the U.S. last year was 7.6%, up from 5.9% in 2022. Tesla led the way with 654,888 EVs sold in the U.S. last year, 55.1% of the market. Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus sold just 14,715, but the company also sold more than 40,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Toyota was the first automaker to bring hybrid vehicles to the market, beginning in 2000 with the Prius.
"What Toyota has that other companies don't have is [hybrid vehicles]," Toyoda said. "Thanks to the introduction of [hybrid vehicles] in Japan 20 to 30 years ago, Japan is the only developed country to have reduced CO2 emissions by 23%. … The enemy is CO2. So, let's all think about reducing CO2 right away."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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