JAKARTA – Honda and Toyota are two Japanese manufacturers that are now the world's automotive giants. Arguably, both are barometers of mass motor vehicle development that many other manufacturers imitate.
However, that doesn't apply to one thing: electric cars. In the current era of 4.0 technology, the two automotive companies prefer to build a type of vehicle with a major energy supply of petroleum type assisted by electric power aka hybrid.
So, why do Honda and Toyota seem to 'ogah-ogahan' play in the electric car business as it is trending at the moment?
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) period 2016 Arcandra Tahar apparently has the answer, or rather hypotheses.
"Of course no one knows the exact reason. However, there are some clues that we can explore to find answers," he said on @arcandra.tahar's personal Instagram page earlier this week.
According to him, there are three important things why Honda and Toyota are reluctant to take seriously electric vehicles or more plural called electric vehicles (EV).
"First, the Japan automaker may not yet believe that EV is the best solution to help reduce exhaust emissions. According to them, cars with a combination of gasoline and electric (hybrid) that should be driven in the transition from fossil fuel cars to EV. With this strategy a lot of funds have been spent to develop hybrid cars in Japan and this investment takes time to return them," he said.
Then, the second assumption made by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources 20 days is that giant automotive manufacturers in Japan may not have seen significant market demand for EV.
"Just to know, EV sales volume is less than 3 percent of total car sales globally. This lack of consumer interest in EV may be due to its more expensive price, short mileage and long charging time," he explained.
Furthermore, the third hypothesis according to Arcandra is that automotive companies in this East Asian country are a bit late to enter the competition arena.
"In addition to the big names that have fought such as General Motor, Volvo and Mercedes, many new players are starting to come in and be able to compete with these big names like Tesla and Nio from China," he concluded.
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