Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda has raised concerns about the environmental benefits of battery electric vehicles (EVs), suggesting that hybrids offer a more practical path to reducing carbon emissions in certain regions. He argues that Toyota’s 27 million hybrid vehicles have the same carbon footprint as only nine million when the entire lifecycle of emissions is taken into account.
WhichCar reports that in a recent interview, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda emphasized that while carbon neutrality remains the company’s top priority, he believes that hybrid vehicles may be more effective at reducing carbon emissions compared to true EVs. Toyoda highlighted that Toyota has sold approximately 27 million hybrid vehicles, which he claims have had a similar carbon reduction impact as nine million EVs. Toyoda argues that EVs are still significantly “dirtier” than gasoline-electric hybrids when factoring in the full lifecycle emissions.
From Toyoda’s perspective, when battery production and emissions from power generation are taken into acocunt, a single EV is responsible for as much pollution as three hybrids.