Toyota says selling full-electric vehicles is less eco-friendly

The car industry is in a state of flux at the moment due to a slow transition away from gas-guzzling engines to full electric alternatives with hybrids in the middle. Toyota, which currently doesn't sell a fully-electric vehicle in the US, believes electric vehicles are actually less eco-friendly than hybrids, and it has a valid reason to back up that claim.

As Popular Mechanics reports, Toyota's Gerald Killmann, vice president of research and development for Europe, explained the thinking behind the company's focus on hybrids over full-electric vehicles during the Geneva Motor Show 2019. The problem is one of battery production and allocation.

According to Killmann, Toyota's battery manufacturing capacity is currently 28,000 units per year if the batteries are required to power full-electric vehicles. However, if instead that manufacturing is dedicated to batteries for use in hybrids where they sit alongside a more conventional gasoline engine, then Toyota can produce 1.5 million vehicles.

Toyota therefore views hybrids as having the more positive environmental impact because replacing 1.5 million gas guzzlers with hybrids means a much lower carbon footprint than 28,000 full electric vehicles would.

In the short term this makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons. Having an inventory of 1.5 million low carbon vehicles to sell will generate more profit than 28,000 full electric vehicles. By embracing hybrids, Toyota is giving itself time to steadily increase battery production without massive investment being required upfront.

This way of thinking also suggests we could see Toyota move to offer all hybrids as a priority before refocusing to transition to all electric eventually. We also can't forget that Toyota is pushing for hydrogen-powered vehicles, with the Mirai being a prime example.