LAS VEGAS – Ambitious targets for electric vehicle sales – in California or nationwide – will be hard to achieve by 2030 or 2035, Akio Toyoda told reporters Thursday.
Regarding California’s rule calling for a ban on the sale of gasoline-burning vehicles by 2035, the Toyota Motor Corp. CEO said: “Realistically speaking, it seems rather difficult to really achieve that.”
He added that a potential national goal of 50 percent zero-emission vehicles by 2030 would be “very difficult.”
As a global automaker serving 200 countries, Toyota must take into account the wide variety of conditions in those various markets, including the needs of the 1 billion or so people who don’t have reliable access to electricity.
Through a translator, he cautioned that regulations “tend to narrow the options available for solutions toward carbon neutrality.”
Longer term, he sees hydrogen combustion as a compelling offering. In the short term, hybrids may