Toyota's former director and current board member is adamant that motorists should be able to choose themselves rather than being forced to buy electric cars.
Toyota sold more cars in 2023 than ever before. And although the Japanese deny it, there are many indications that they are aiming to set another sales record this year.
And it must neither be at the expense of the electric car nor because of it. Because even though Toyota has plans for many electric cars, it is not the type of car that drives the plant.
Instead, Toyota's former director and current board member, Aiko Toyoda, emphasizes a point he has mentioned before.
Namely, that politics should not dictate what motorists must drive around in. Motorists must be able to decide that.
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– The customers – neither rules nor politics – must make that decision (in relation to the propellant, ed.), Toyoda said back in January.
This also means that Toyota will throw money into the development of completely new internal combustion engines, Toyoda emphasized during the so-called 'Toyota Group Vision Briefing', in which 200 of Toyota's sub-directors and managers participated.
Thus, Aiko Toyoda continues the line he laid out for Toyota in connection with the Tokyo Auto Salon in January.
– If we suddenly switch to electric cars, I'm sure the 5.5 million people who work in Japan's auto industry, who have spent their lives working with engines, will start to question what they're doing in.
– Some of our sub-suppliers on the engine side can't even get banks to lend them money, said a surprised Toyoda to the press.
Toyota is not alone in this attitude either. At BMW, they refuse to put an expiry date on the internal combustion engine. And at Stellantis, you are ready to change your attitude 'if the public mood turns towards electric cars'.
At Mercedes, it sounds like they only want to build electric cars for the European market. But only when 'the conditions for it are there'.
