At the opening of the Japan Mobility Show 2023, Akio Toyoda, former president of Toyota and now chairman of the company’s supervisory board, expressed mild triumph. When, after years of strong growth in the electric market, the whole thing temporarily slowed down or led to changes in strategies, Toyoda reiterated his former position. In his view, manufacturers should continue to invest in hybrids instead of deciding to jump in at the deep end and produce electric cars.
Toyota is doing it right
The situation in the US market is indeed favourable for hybrid cars, recalls the Wall Street Journal quoting Toyoda. Toyota dealers have a stock of the electric bZ4X for two months of sales, while the Toyota Prius hybrid is in gigantic demand, averaging just over a week waiting in the showroom for a transaction. Akio Toyoda believes that by defending himself against electrics and urging a differentiated path to reduce emissions (=hybrids), he has seen the reality for what it is:
Someone has to tell the industry what will make car buyers happy. If regulations are created based on ideals, ordinary users will suffer.
As an implication: the US car industry today has a perfect example of how hybrids make buyers happy, meanwhile electric cars are in decline. Toyoda does not add that in the States Tesla still has more than 60 per cent of the market for new electric cars and that the other manufacturers want to sell mainly expensive cars.
Finally, the chairman of Toyota’s supervisory board does not say that the share of electrics sold is increasing quarter by quarter, as they accounted for 7.9 per cent of new cars in July-September 2023, compared to 6.1 per cent a year ago. But there is logic in his position: internal combustion cars (including hybrids) still account for 92.1 per cent of the market.
The new Toyota Prius Plug-in (PHICE, formerly: PHEV; photos above) has 164 kW/223 hp of power, an 86 units of WLTP range and costs about the same as the VW ID.3 after recent discounts. The VW ID.3 Pro S 82 (77) kWh battery variant has a larger boot (385 vs 284 litres), depending on the variant has 4 or 5 seats in the cabin (facelifted variant / some pre-facelift examples), 150 kW/204 hp of power and up to 544 units of WLTP range.
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