Toyota Motor Corp. incoming President and Chief Executive Koji Sato attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan February 13, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Katois looking at a factory floor overhaul as it maps out a move to a new, dedicated platform for battery electric vehicles, four people familiar with the matter said.
Slow to push hard into battery electrics, such a move by Toyota would bring the automaker into line with other global rivals. Its current production architecture, the e-TNGA system, was launched in 2019 and produces electric vehicles on the same assembly line as gasoline cars and hybrids. Sato, Toyoda's hand-picked successor, recently attended an internal presentation that focused on the need for a dedicated battery-electric platform, a more competitive system to manage heat generated by the battery as well as other innovations influenced by Tesla's playbook, according to a third person.
"Some of the statements that came out of Toyota when Akio Toyoda was CEO sort of made it sound kind of like hybrids are going to be there forever. No, it’s your standby, it’s your hedge. EVs have to be first,” said CLSA analyst Christopher Richter. EVs are now expected to globally represent more than half of total vehicle production by 2030. Meeting that demand will be critical for Toyota. So far it has fallen short - its initial battery EV, the bZ4X, suffered an early recall and has had only limited sales.
Toyota goes woke. We will all wait until they tank when the economy grinds to a halt because 75% of people won't be able to afford 80-100k for a car that won't last 10 years before it needs 10k in batteries.
Watching carefully. I would love to see hydrogen-powered Tacomas in the US.
Takes charge? No pun intended right?
I just think the other older CEO was trying to hold on to hydrogen because some people still prefer CDs over streaming services. But I believe once most cars are electric the price of electricity will probably skyrocket.
🍁'Overhaul' implies Toyota had it all wrong bu't it is the pioneers that get hit with the arrows' as they say & they've had a reputation of quality which lends itself to doing it right rather than being 'innovative' (imo). Let's hope they can do both.🤞
When Injection molding is ~10% Efficient, and 3D Printing is ~2% Efficient, there are significant barriers to that transition. That said, no one has tried to optimize the printer technology. For anyone not keeping up with that conversation, EV vehicle production will eventually…
Windmill cars are the future . Just think when a car moves there is wind ! So you have the energy there already !