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“After all, I am not standing before you as a company manager, but as an aging private citizen who is passionate about cars. I’ve dreamed of this moment for a long time!” 67-year-old Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder Toyoda Kiichiro, welcomed visitors to the Tokyo Motor Show. At the same time, he has retained his professional and social influence as well as his popularity – the latter of which he gained not least through his long-term participation in local and international car races under the pseudonym Morizo - and that is what he is now trying to use, among other things To secure automobiles, automobile manufacturing and the future of the automobile industry.
In this context, he once again spoke out against a postponement of combustion engines and a sole preference for battery-electric drive technology.
“A billion people in the world live without electricity. Depriving them of freedom of choice and the ability to travel cannot be the means to combat emissions.” – Bloomberg news agency quoted Toyoda. “Politicians cannot make such decisions for consumers.” This approach has always been characteristic of Akio Toyoda: when he took over the management of the company, one of his first tasks was to break with the previous practice of centralized decision-making and to create a system create in which he classified the company’s operations and product development at the regional level.
But it’s not just the needs of developing countries that speak against exclusive electrification: Toyoda Akio illustrated the dangers of an exclusive paradigm shift using the example of the Japanese automobile industry. “In Japan alone, five and a half million people work in the automotive industry. Many of them earn their living by producing parts for internal combustion engines. These people are important players in the Japanese economy and their knowledge is essential for the country’s future. We can’t lose them.”
Morizo is in favor of preserving traditional drive methods not only on a theoretical level: at his personal request, it was decided that Toyota would develop completely new engine technologies. “I am convinced that combustion engines can definitely play a role in the fight for CO2 neutrality. Apparently we are taking a step back in time, but on the contrary: this is the most efficient way to move forward.”
He reiterated his opinion, which he has consistently held for years, and said that purely electric vehicles can play a major role in the future, but in his opinion their market share will not rise above 30 percent in the foreseeable future. The remaining more than two thirds can be shared by the other solutions: technologies that are already known and those that are yet to be developed. “Some people are fans of combustion engines, their sound, their smell. Others prefer battery-electric cars. According to a third group, hybrids are the solution – and we haven’t even talked about plug-in hybrids and hydrogen as an energy source yet. Anything can provide the drive. Only one thing is certain: CO2 emissions are our common enemy!” Akio Toyoda summarized his philosophy.
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