Japan's Carmakers Are EV Laggards

○ Not one of them is among the world’s top 20 electric-vehicle makers, risking their futures

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Fans at the Nascar Cup Series race in Arizona on Nov. 6 had front-row seats for a debate over the auto industry’s future. A plane sponsored by the nonprofit consumer group Public Citizen flew past the Phoenix Raceway carrying a banner: “Want exciting? Drive electric. Want boring? Drive Toyota.”

The flyby followed an open letter from Public Citizen and 16 other advocacy groups to Akio Toyoda, chief executive officer at the world’s largest carmaker, criticizing its strategy regarding electric vehicles. “No automaker has been able to keep up with the surging consumer demand for battery electric vehicles, but Toyota has not even attempted to meet it,” the groups wrote. “Toyota can and must shift swiftly to EVs or risk obsolescence.”

Toyota says it’s working aggressively on clean car technologies. “It is our hope and mission to reduce CO2 emissions as much as we can and as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement. “In this diversified world, in an age where we do not know what the correct answer is, it is difficult to make everyone happy with only one option. That is why Toyota will continue to make every effort possible to offer as many options of BEVs and other multi-powertrains to our customers around the world.” In September, CEO Toyoda said battery-electric vehicles “are just going to take longer than the media would like us to believe.”