AUTONEWS

Toyota snags electric cars

Jack Hollis, Toyota's top manager in the US market, decided to say that the brand he drives does not make electric vehicles, for one very simple reason: "because they do not sell." According to him, the demand is so low that it does not justify the existence of this type of proposals in the dealers of the mark. Well, apart from the fact that the sales mix is ​​changing, the funny thing here is that customers will hardly find something that ... does not exist. And maybe there is an explanation for such a "scarce demand" for electric models in the brand stands.
Another strange detail in Hollis's statements concerns the different strategy used years ago in hybrids like the Prius, technology in which Toyota bet hard, long before the competition. And that, she admitted, led her to lose an appreciable amount of money for every Prius she sold. However, the Japanese manufacturer argued that the new technologies always require a financial effort to prove their viability. Today Toyota is known primarily for its hybrids and plug-in hybrids, a solution already present in most of its models, not just the Prius, having already "invaded" Lexus.
But there are other dissonant notes in Jack Hollis's speech, as not only has Toyota been the first automaker to propose an electric SUV - an EV variant based on the first generation of the RAV4 - as it is about to embark on one of the most ambitious which touches on electric mobility, as it has promised to launch a new line of electric cars at the beginning of the next decade. Which would not be ambitious, had it not been for the Japanese manufacturer to have revealed its intention to power this new generation of EVs into solid batteries. Something that, until now, does not exist on the market, despite the fact that the advantages that this type of accumulators would bring in terms of capacity, weight and speed in recharging, compared to (current) lithium ion batteries, are evident.
It turns out that, again according to Hollis, the new electric family that Toyota is preparing to present with solid batteries will not be the "heart" of the brand. It will be a complement of an offer that goes from the hybrids to the plug-ins, not forgetting the electric driven by hydrogen fuel cell. A completely electrified range, therefore.