Japan Finally Realizing its Fallen Behind in the EV Race
After spending years opposing the electric vehicles (EVs) in favor of hybrids, major Japanese automakers are now stepping up efforts to accelerate the development of EVs, in a bid to catch up in the global market. There is a sense of crisis over a possible decline of the Japanese automobile industry if U.S., European, and Chinese automakers continue to dominate the EV market.
Not so long ago, Japan’s largest automaker Toyota and its then boss Akio Toyoda were very vocal against the EVs, calling them doubtful, spreading anti-EV propaganda in schools, showing displeasure against the Japanese government’s push towards EVs, saying its hybrids will help reduce emissions more than electric vehicles, asserting that consumer choice dictates the pace of electrification, lobbying to get its hybrid tech the same benefits as EVs, and threatening to leave markets where EVs were favored instead of hybrids, and even claiming that time will tell Toyota’s EV point of view was the correct one. But now under the leadership of new boss Koji Sato, Toyota has finally realized it cannot compete with EVs on a global scale with its obsolete hybrid tech, which it debuted with the Prius in the late 90s.
“We are firmly committed to making attractive EVs,” Toyota President Koji Sato said. Other Japanese automakers have now started to acknowledge the reality too, despite analysts warning them that Japan could lose 14% of its GDP and millions of jobs by stalling on EVs.
And then there is competition from South Korea, home to the biggest battery industry outside of China. The country has been quicker than Japan to establish a presence in the Canadian and Australian mineral industries. South Korean automakers notably Hyundai and Kia embraced electric cars way sooner than Japanese and have produced EVs that have already made their name in global markets.
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