Known for its keen focus on full-hybrid vehicles over electric vehicles for the near future, Toyota has time and again been criticized for its late entry into the category of battery electric vehicles. However, being a pioneer of fully-hybrid vehicles, Toyota has its say on the whole industry going gaga over all-electric vehicles. While Toyota has finally entered the space of all-electric vehicles with the bZ4X, the company has clearly stated that it will still be focusing more on full-hybrid vehicles over EVs, at least for the recent upcoming years.
According to Toyota’s chief scientist Gill Pratt, the best approach in making a gradual shift to a sustainable future is to blend EVs with full hybrids and other green technologies, and not rely fully on EVs. He has made this statement based on some facts and figures proven by science, which has come at a time when all the chief carmakers have committed to switching to all-electric portfolios in the next few years to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible.
According to Pratt, the talks on adopting a better constructive strategy of adopting full-hybrid vehicles in a large fleet will have a more impact on the reduction of emissions. He also questioned the rush towards the all-electric future of its rival companies. He said that to achieve the least possible carbon emissions, the dependence on lithium has to be reduced.
Hypothetical situation as an example
Pratt used a hypothetical situation as an example, in which he explained how a fleet of 100 internal combustion engine vehicles can produce an average carbon emission of 250 grams of carbon dioxide. Given the limited supply of lithium, there is room enough for only 100 kWh batteries, which will drop the carbon emissions by only 1.5 gm/km.
However, if a smaller quantity of lithium is spread among small 1.1 kWh batteries for full-hybrid cars, the average carbon emissions will drop to around 205 gm/km.
While Toyota is not fully against producing EVs at this stage, it wants to have a gradual and diversified approach, due to the shortage of lithium all over the world. Considering that lithium is one of the most important materials used in batteries of vehicles, proper planning is required for the future.
From 2030, Toyota wants to sell 5.5 million vehicles with internal combustion engines and plug-in hybrid cars and 3.5 million EVs, thus maintaining a fine equilibrium between both categories of vehicles.
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