Despite selling more than 10 million vehicles for the past two years, Toyota has been slow to include electric vehicles in its global lineup, instead focusing its resources on its market-leading hybrids.
Chairman Akio Toyoda – grandson of Toyota Motors founder Kiichiro Toyoda – has doubled down on his belief that hybrids, not EVs (or BEVs, as he calls them), have been the right choice for the car giant, purely based on emissions.
“When the term carbon neutrality became popular, we said as a company the enemy is carbon, Toyoda said in an interview published via the in-house magazine, Toyota Times.
“We have to focus on what we can do immediately to reduce carbon dioxide. That is the basis of our decision. It has not changed and will not change.
“We have sold some 27 million hybrids. Those hybrids have had the same impact as 9 million BEVs on the road.
“But if we were to have made 9 million BEVs in Japan, it would have actually increased the carbon emissions, not reduced them. That is because Japan relies on the thermal power plants for electricity.
“We should look at all options and work in all directions. As a company, we have been very consistent in saying what we’re fighting against is carbon dioxide.”
While Toyota is rolling out more EVs globally, it’s being done at a relatively glacial rate. The bZ4X is the brand’s only true global EV, while there are a number of models on sale in specific markets such as China and Europe.
In 2024, Toyota and its luxury division Lexus sold 10,159,336 vehicles worldwide. 4,142,412 of these were hybrids (up 21 per cent on 2023), while just 139,892 were EVs.
For context, the car giant sold even more plug-in hybrids than EVs with 153,829 sales, despite this being a less popular powertrain in most markets.
It’s a similar case in Australia, where Toyota only has the bZ4X as its sole EV, against nine hybrids. This led to Toyota selling 115,477 hybrids locally last year, compared to just 977 EVs.
The brand’s lineup is set to soon expand though, with the larger bZ4X Touring due here in the first half of 2026.
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