Toyota CEO doubles down on EV strategy amid criticism it's not moving fast enough

LAS VEGAS – Toyota Motor is lasting by its electrical conveyance strategy, including hybrids similar the Prius, pursuing disapproval by immoderate investors and environmentalist groups that the institution is transitioning excessively dilatory to EVs.

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, who has built a firm strategy astir the thought that EVs aren't the lone solution for automakers to scope c neutrality, said Thursday the institution volition determination guardant with plans to connection an array of alleged electrified vehicles for the foreseeable aboriginal – ranging from hybrids and plug-ins to all-electric and hydrogen electrical vehicles.

"Everything is going to beryllium up to the customers to decide," helium said done a translator during a tiny media roundtable, a time aft addressing the company's Toyota dealers astatine their yearly league successful Las Vegas.

Toyoda addressed the request to person skeptics of the company's strategy, including authorities officials focusing regulations connected all-electric artillery vehicles, saying the automaker volition "present the hard facts" astir user adoption and the full biology interaction of producing EVs compared with hybrid electrified vehicles.

Since the Prius launched successful 1997, Toyota says it has sold much than 20 cardinal electrified vehicles worldwide. The institution says those income person avoided 160 cardinal tons of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent to the interaction of 5.5 cardinal all-electric artillery vehicles.

Toyoda's remarks echoed comments helium made to thousands of Toyota dealers and employees connected Wednesday, saying the institution volition play "with each the cards successful the deck" and connection a wide-array of vehicles for each customers.

"That's our strategy and we're sticking to it," Toyoda, who has described himself arsenic a "car feline oregon car nerd," said successful a signaling of the remarks shown to reporters.

Toyoda doubled down connected institution expectations that all-electric conveyance adoption volition "take longer to go mainstream" than galore think.

Company executives, portion increasing investments successful all-electric vehicles, person argued specified cars and trucks are 1 solution, not the solution, to conscionable tightening planetary emissions standards and execute c neutrality. Toyota continues to put successful alternate solutions arsenic good arsenic hybrid vehicles specified arsenic the Prius, which harvester EV exertion with accepted interior combustion engines.

The institution has said its strategy is justified, arsenic not each areas of the satellite volition follow EVs astatine the aforesaid gait owed to the precocious outgo of the vehicles arsenic good arsenic a deficiency of infrastructure.

Toyota's strategy has been criticized by biology groups specified arsenic the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, which has ranked the Japanese automaker astatine the bottommost of its auto-industry decarbonization ranking the past 2 years.

Toyota plans to put astir $70 cardinal successful electrified vehicles, including $35 cardinal successful all-electric artillery technologies implicit the 9 years. It plans to connection astir 70 electrified models globally by 2025.

Toyota plans to merchantability astir 3.5 cardinal all-electric vehicles annually by 2030, which would lone beryllium astir a 3rd of its existent yearly sales.