Toyota Motor President Admits Difficult to Meet Gasoline Car Sales Ban by 2035

JAKARTA - Toyota Motor Corp president Akio Toyoda said the new zero-emissions requirements of the state of California seeking to end sales of new gasoline vehicles by 2035 would be "difficult" to meet.

"Realistically, it seems a bit difficult to actually achieve it," Toyoda said on Thursday 29 September through an interpreter during a roundtable interview with reporters.

Toyoda, who has led the company since 2009, defended Toyota's strategy and plans to develop electric vehicles, which were criticized by some environmental groups and investors who wanted the company to move faster to adopt battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

"But like fully autonomous cars we should all be driving now, BEVs are just going to take longer to go mainstream than the media would have us believe," Toyoda said.

Automakers are facing increasing pressure from regulators to sell more zero-emissions vehicles. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said last Thursday that the state also plans to adopt the requirements as does California.

In August, Toyota said it would increase its planned investment in new US battery plants from $1.29 billion to $3.8 billion, partly in response to rising prices. consumer demand for electric vehicles. Toyota, California's best-selling car brand, last month recognized state authority to set vehicle emission standards under the US Clean Air Act.

Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, said in a video on Wednesday September 28 that "playing to win means playing with all the cards in the deck - not just a select few. So that's our strategy and we stick to it." The previous day's video played on Thursday's show.

Toyoda compared the automaker to a "convenience store" that sells a variety of vehicles to customers with different needs.

Toyoda outlined the challenges for EV adoption including the impact on the power grid and the lack of easy access to electricity by an estimated 1 billion people worldwide.

Toyota dealer Steve Gates, which operates in Kentucky and Indiana, said the automaker's approach to selling vehicles made sense. "You can't make a living just selling EVs," Gates said.

"Toyota's corporate vision is to provide freedom of mobility for everyone and we don't want to leave anyone behind," added Toyoda.

Last year, the Japanese automaker committed about 30 billion US dollars (Rp 456.9 trillion) to develop battery electric vehicles. The company expects annual sales of such cars to reach only 3.5 million vehicles by the end of the decade, about a third of the current annual sales of gasoline-powered cars.