Photo: Toyota
Toyota has been under scrutiny recently for not moving away from gas cars quickly enough, and for lobbying against climate policies, according to Reuters.
In a Q&A with Danish pension fund AkademikerPension during a general meeting, Toyota CTO Masahiko Maeda explained that “customers need to choose” to popularize EVs.
In rebuttal, AkademikerPension said that Toyota was using the excuse to avoid transitioning too quickly to EVs — something the fund says is not acceptable amidst the current backdrop of climate change.
Toyota’s bZ4X EV Has Poor DC Fast Charging, May Stop in Cold Weather https://t.co/w7CIbZZriJ
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) May 14, 2022
In a statement following the meeting, AkademikerPension said, “Toyota used the pretext of customer choices to avoid answering the question about lobbying activities … to slow the transition towards fossil-fuel-free cars.”
The fund continued, “As investors, we expect more in 2022 against the backdrop of the climate crisis threatening to limit much more than customer choices in a not-so-distant future.”
Toyota, however, argued that hybrids are still valid, especially in areas where the infrastructure does not yet support EVs.
Last year, reports came out showing that Toyota was quietly lobbying against EVs at the White House despite its previous help in popularizing hybrid vehicles.
The reports also found that Toyota was still working on making other clean energy fuels available, specifically including hydrogen.
