Dose of Reality: Toyota Chairman Says EVs Will Only Take Up 30% of Car Market, Pols Should Stand Aside

The booming sound you may be hearing right now -- especially if you live in San Francisco or Washington, D.C -- could be resulting from liberal heads exploding as they read about what Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said during a conference this month. Electric vehicles will only ever make up 30 percent of the market or less, he argued, and politicians should get out of the way and let the markets decide which cars are preferable to consumers.

Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Al Gore have not commented.

Toyoda's opinion doesn't mean that he's completely given up on cleaner energy, though; he believes hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars will play a role too -- but gas-burning cars will still dominate.

With a billion people in the world living without electricity, limiting their choices and ability to travel by making expensive cars isn’t the answer, the grandson of the company’s founder said during a business event this month, according to remarks published on the company’s media platform Tuesday. “Customers — not regulations or politics — should make that decision,” he said. [Emphasis mine.]

It's been a rough week for EVs:

Electric Vehicles Enter the 'Total Failure' Phase of Their Existence

Ford Slashes Electric Truck Production, Because Nobody Wants Them

'We Got a Bunch of Dead Robots Out Here'—Tesla Charging Stations Freeze in Chicago

Toyoda has long been a proponent of a “multi-pathway approach” where customers get to choose what cars best suit their needs because the EV revolution won't be as quick as some are claiming.

From the Toyota Motor Corporation transcript of the conference:

No matter how much progress BEVs [Battery Electric Vehicles] make, I think they will still only have a 30 % market share . Then, the remaining 70 % will be HEVs , FCEVs , and hydrogen engines. And I think engine cars will definitely remain.
I think this is something that customers and the market will decide, not regulatory values or political power. [Bolding and underlining theirs.]

That's why Toyota Motor Corporation, which is competing all over the world, has a full lineup of multi-pathway products.

It's no surprise that Toyoda is a fan of hybrid vehicles because his company manufactures the top-selling car in the category, the Prius, which liberals love to cover in progressive bumper stickers.

The grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda served as CEO of the world's number one automaker from 2009 to 2023 before taking on the chairman role in April 2023.

Despite his belief in the future of gas-powered engines, Toyoda is proud of his company's record:

'Thanks to the introduction of [hybrids] in Japan 20 to 30 years ago, Japan is the only developed country to have reduced CO2 emissions by 23 percent,' he said, according to a transcript of the conference, shared by Toyota.
'Japan has its own way of doing things. I don't think the correct answer is to try to imitate the West in everything,' he said.

I have no problem with electric cars, and people who want to buy one should be able to -- by all means, be my guest. What I do have a problem with is politicians shoving them down our throats when they're not ready for prime time. Toyoda's approach to cutting down carbon emissions is much more realistic than Joe Biden's or CA Gov. Newsom's.

It's too bad that progressives and climate alarmists will ignore his message.

See: Californians Told Not to Charge Electric Vehicles Days After State Banned Gas-Powered Sales by 2035