Toyota's future lies in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, rather than all-electric cars like Tesla's Model S. The company's chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, spoke frankly on the near-term future of cars in a speech on Monday, noting that electric vehicles require breakthroughs in battery technology to become a viable replacement for traditional cars. The Wall Street Journal quotes Uchiyamada saying "the reason why Toyota doesn't introduce any major [all-electric product] is because we do not believe there is a market to accept it."
The comments come despite a business relationship between Toyota and Tesla that has yielded component sharing and a large investment in Tesla itself. Toyota currently owns 2.5 percent of the fledgling manufacturer, a figure that was larger but decreased as Tesla issued more shares. It's clear that Uchiyamada understands the recently profitable company is correct in pursuing the all-electric market, but doesn't see it as an appropriate market for a company the size of Toyota. The Japanese company has produced all-electric vehicles, but continues to target the mass-market with its Prius hybrid instead.
Toyota will aggressively pursue the energy-efficient market with hybrid vehicles, with Uchiyamada calling the Prius "the most important vehicle for [Toyota's] future." Should the all-electric market, which virtually every other major manufacturer is entering, prove to be larger than Toyota suspects, the company is in a good position to transition over — hybrid technology "encompasses all of the technologies required to make an electric vehicle," says Uchiyamada. "Some people say hybrid vehicles such as the Prius are only a bridge to the future ... but we think it could be a long bridge and a very sturdy one. There are many more gains we can achieve with hybrids."
Looking further into the future, Toyota plans on selling a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for around $50,000 in 2015. Fuel cells generate electricity through hydrogen, expelling only water. The advantages of fuel cells are a lack of local pollution and the ability to quickly refuel, but hydrogen itself is difficult to transport and store, costly to isolate, and not clearly environmentally friendly.
Comments
“The reason why Toyota doesn’t introduce any major [all-electric product] is because we do not believe there is a market to accept it.”. Which translates to “the oil companies are paying us not to screw them over”.
If the oil companies didn’t have this country (and car manufacturers) by the balls, all of our cars would be fully electric by now.
By Howard Pinsky on 10.01.13 7:52am
Yes and no. Yes, the have us by the balls, because we allow it. No, you don’t need all electric. Try diesel. Many autos in the UK and Europe run on diesel and get 50mpg+.
By eastbayrae on 10.01.13 7:56am
Diesel won’t last too long either.
By pratnala on 10.01.13 8:13am
Diesel can be made from bio material though.
By VoxMediaUser639518 on 10.01.13 9:40am
The US has strict emissions laws that make many high-efficiency engines (especially diesel ones) impossible for the US. Compliance with US emissions limits diesel particulate matter in the exhaust. To combat this, manufacturers install DPFs (diesel particulate filter) in the exhaust line, which limits exhaust flow, which in turn limits engine output.
Also, you can’t compare UK mpg with US mpg without realizing that imperial gallon (4.5L) is significantly larger than US gallon (3.8L).
By tkbrdly on 10.01.13 9:26am
Seriously. There are two different sizes of gallons?? Why are we not on metric yet?!
By razorflake on 10.01.13 11:00am
Europe has stricter Emission laws and Diesel cars are common. I believe VW and Audi have launched Diesel Cars in the US. There are many reasons why Diesel cars have not been successful in the US; but Emission Laws are definitely not one of them.
By raghavny80 on 10.01.13 4:13pm
The US diesel regulations are the strictest in the world and that’s the reason the exhaust aftertreatment on cars sold here is unique to the USA.
By tkbrdly on 10.01.13 7:29pm
This. It makes me mad, because I have to get a less fuel efficient car because diesel is “dirty”. Or something.
By TechS on 10.01.13 7:51pm
Hi. I hope you are just joking about Diesel. Here in France we have 80% of diesel out there because of the price per liter (lower than anything else) and 42000 deaths pa (proven by European Commission report) because of GHG especially NO². Right now, car manufacturers invented diesel particular filter. You have to change it every two years (cost c2000USD) or you engine comes dead. And we have a new business invented recently called Defapage (or how to extract the filter from the car for just 500euros). After you extract the filter, it is just a diesel car with huge GHG emissions. This is the worth engine in the world. Why other countries does not follow French example ? My French point of view : France cannot be right against the rest of the world. France made a mistake 30 years ago by pushing diesel. Now, how can we get out of this issue ?
By John Honore on 10.04.13 8:49am
Utility companies got you by the balls!
By kent808 on 10.01.13 9:19am
Prove them wrong by buying an all-electric car. But something tells me you won’t.
Toyota is absolutely correct in saying market does not exist yet. All electrics need to first expand range and solve the problem of quick recharging. Both are tied directly to battery technology which is not advancing quick enough to talk about any sort or form of revolution in the market. So 10 years from now we are still going to debate how electrics are going to be viable when they do not compete with regular cars neither on range, nor on convenience of recharging.
Electrics will find their niche in service industry (cabs, deliveries, utility trucks) where they can benefit from fixed infrastructure at the central garages and predictable range requirements. But to become widespread among consumers, they would need to become as nimble as current gas cars. If my car is running low on gas and I ma in a hurry to go somewhere, I need not worry – there are dozens of recharging stations all around me with less than 5 minutes to get car juiced up for another 400 miles or so. Show me how electrics are going to beat that convenience? When it is cold here in North-East, I worry not, as my car’s mileage changes only slightly. Not so with battery-powered cars where capacity may decrease up to 50% in very cold weather. If I run out of gas on the road, one quick call and 20 minutes later I have a service truck delivering me a few gallons of gas to get me to the nearest gas station. With all-electric, I would have to tow my car to the nearest garage and wait there for good several hours until battery is recharged.
By netsc0rer on 10.01.13 10:03am
Tesla is solving the quick-recharge issues with its Superchargers and battery-swap technology.
By UnnDunn on 10.01.13 10:07am
Wake me up when they have as many supercharger stations worldwide as there are gas stations now.
By Bro! on 10.01.13 12:29pm
Why, when the vast majority of Tesla owners will have home charging stations, and public charging stations are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the country?
Most private car owners drive less than 50 miles a day. With a high-power home charger, that’s less than an hour and $2 to top up overnight. Or charge at a public charging station. Superchargers are only for long-distance trips.
A Model S is just as livable as a gasoline-powered car. Charge up at home every night (or at work at a public station while your car is parked) and it’ll be ready to go whenever you need it. If you’re going long-distance, hit up a Supercharger along the way.
By UnnDunn on 10.01.13 1:25pm
You are making exact points why it’s not going to work out for most people. Yes, everyone would have a charger at home. But when you come back from work low on juice and you need to get your kids to soccer practice, you don’t have an hour to wait to recharge the batteries. And when you are going for a weekend drive to your aunty few towns away, there are no recharging stations anywhere near you. You’ll end up being in constant fear of running low and being stranded on the road and this is not a cozy feeling that most consumers want to have when owning a car.
By netsc0rer on 10.01.13 4:20pm
Tesla Model S cars have a range of at least 200 miles, even the cheapest model in freezing temperatures. That is way more than enough to cover you for a day’s worth of driving, unless you’re going on a road trip or you’re operating a taxicab.
So when you come back from work, you won’t be low on juice. Unless your job involves driving around all day. And unless your aunt lives two states away, you’ll be able to get there and back with no problem.
By UnnDunn on 10.01.13 4:31pm
Electric cars will be reasonably priced 5 years from now. I don’t have any stats to back up my claim but I’ve seen enough of them driving around to realize they are here to stay. I don’t know what Toyota is thinking going with hydrogen. According to GM of circa 2003, we should all be driving their “skateboard” Hy-wire car by 2010. Toyota won the first round by going with hybrids but they are going to lose this next round for sure if they think electric cars aren’t going to catch on and do well.
By Specialbuddy on 10.01.13 11:44am
I do operate 3 projects for tomorrow of world. First, the new power plant project with no sources necessary. Second, the new spaceship project with a new motor system. Third, extend the range of the electricity cars project with no charge necessary.
By chalilozdemir on 10.18.13 9:45am
Nice link bait, The Verge. “the reason why Toyota doesn’t introduce any major [all-electric product] is because we do not believe there is a market to accept it.” He’s saying right now. Not in the future. Toyota does believe in Electric vehicles, I mean they have a Rav 4 EV and they invest in TESLA.
By lotus22 on 10.01.13 8:09am
Someone from The Verge replied to this refuting the allegation and then deleted their post. Why?
I’ll second this. What Toyota are clearly saying is that they don’t think there is any market for a mass market vehicle yet and that that will require and significant advancement in battery technology. This is kinda obvious. The only mass market electric vehicle right now is the Nissan Leaf which isn’t exactly a roaring success. Tesla I believe are saying they expect to have a mass market car no sooner than in 4 years time.
There could have hypothetically been two possibilities for the headline here, either:
Toyota doesn’t see opportunity for a mass market all-electric car yet
or
Toyota doesn’t see opportunity for an all-electric car
The first one sounds obvious. No one has a good or successful mass market car out today or expects to have one in the next 3 years.
The second one implies Toyota don’t see market demand for any electric cars ever. You have to read the article first to find out that’s completely untrue. I can’t imagine a better textbook example of click-bait.
By brownbox on 10.01.13 8:43am
You would think that Toyota would realize that being last to market with a mainstream EV is a bad thing. They hold a 60% market share in hybrids because they were first to market. Waiting will likely hurt them. Especially when cars like the BMW i3 show the world what a purpose built EV can be. Toyota may be able to scale up converting current models to EVs, but will be way behind the curve on purpose built car like the i3 and Prius. Maybe that costs them sales, maybe they can make a go of it with conversions – I just have a hard time understanding how a company that brought us hybrids would take this stance at a point where they really could have controlled this market by using the Prius a a halo car for an all EV line.
Not sure I agree with roaring success comment and your ‘yet’ commentary – compared to the same timepoint in the Prius lifecycle, the Leaf IS a roaring success and this market is taking off much faster than the hybrid market did.
Hopefully for Toyota they don’t wait too long to get on the bus.
By TWScrap on 10.01.13 10:02am
had a Rav 4 EV
By tkbrdly on 10.01.13 9:27am
It is still on sale.
By UnnDunn on 10.01.13 10:01am
that’s news to me, thanks for the link.
By tkbrdly on 10.01.13 12:05pm