Hard times for electric cars: Toyota boss predicts “enormous shortage”
Many manufacturers have long focused their plans for the future on electric cars. Alternatives to the battery drive are hardly up for debate. Not so with Toyota. The boss of the Japanese car manufacturer still does not want to commit himself to pure electric cars.
Clear words from the Toyota boss: only relying on electric cars is a mistake
The future of cars is electric. Many manufacturers and brands agree on this point of view. In the EU and some Scandinavian countries or in the pioneering US state of California, they have little choice but to rely on pure electric cars, also because of existing and future regulations. But Toyota continues to swim purposefully against the tide in this respect.
CEO Akio Toyoda has now confirmed that nothing will change soon. The Japanese are just about to launch the second pure electric car under their own brand. He also expects serious problems for all manufacturers who only rely on pure electric cars and their customers. The goal at Toyota “remain the same, the to satisfy the largest possible number of customers, with the largest possible selection of drives”said the Toyota boss at a meeting with US Toyota dealers (source: CNBC).
These drive types not only include battery-powered electric cars, but also Hybrids and plug-in hybrids, in which Toyota has been one step ahead for years. In addition, you want to continue in the future fuel cell i.e. building electric cars that are fueled with hydrogen instead of charging electricity at the charging station.
According to Toyota, there are several reasons for this: On the one hand, the market would not switch to electric cars as quickly as is often assumed. Also the lack of infrastructure, the high prices as well as the Customer habits would speak against itthat everything would be ready for e-cars in just a few years.
There are still financial reasons for buying an electric car, but they are coming under increasing pressure:
Lack of raw materials remains a problem for electric cars
The situation is also worsened by the raw material situation. Toyota expects one “enormous shortage” of lithium and nickel in battery quality for the next five to ten years. This would continue to cause supply chain problems and production restrictions in the industry.
Manufacturers, who will be more dependent on these raw materials by then, would be hit all the harder. Toyota then sees itself at an advantage because it wants to keep the choice for customers large.
