Why Toyota’s New Prius Won’t Be Its Last
Toyota aired a Super Bowl commercial almost 18 years ago that opened with cars in traffic, their wheels spinning but going nowhere. “It's been a long time since transportation has truly advanced,” a narrator intoned. “We've been moving; we just haven't been moving forward.”
The ad for the second-generation Prius echoes the criticism being lobbed at the manufacturer that just debuted a fifth-generation version of its flagship hybrid. Toyota has ranked last when Greenpeace scored the 10 biggest automakers' decarbonization efforts. InfluenceMap, a think tank that evaluates corporate climate policy engagement, said last month that Toyota remains the most obstructive company in the transport sector.
Toyota would fare better in these rankings if it were to make a no-holds-barred pivot to fully electric vehicles and embrace policies pushing in that direction. But while the company vowed a year ago to plow ¥4 trillion ($30 billion) into an effort to sell 3.5 million EVs annually by the end of the decade, the new-look Prius the company just unveiled won't be the last iteration.
Toyota insists that building more of the hybrids it's been selling for 25 years doesn't mean it's spinning its wheels or failing to move forward. Executives briefed reporters in Brussels last week on plans to reach carbon neutrality in Europe by 2040 — a decade before the company plans to reach net zero globally — and argued the tack they're taking is the quickest way to cut back on car pollution, given the lasting shortages of what's needed for automakers and their customers to go fully electric.
“When battery materials and renewable energy charging infrastructure are scarce — which is what they're going to be for the next 10 to 15 years — we need to
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
