OH MY . . . TOYOTA’S LEADERSHIP LOSES THE SCRIPT

Toyota’s Chief Says “Electric Vehicles Are Overhyped”

Toyota President Akio Toyoda said “Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power” https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyotas-chief-says-electric-vehicles-are-overhyped-11608196665

FIRST, LET’S SEE WHAT THE WSJ REPORTS :

Toyota Motor Corp.’s leader criticized what he described as excessive hype over electric vehicles, saying advocates failed to consider the carbon emitted by generating electricity and the costs of an EV transition

The infrastructure needed to support a fleet consisting entirely of EVs would cost Japan between ¥14 trillion and ¥37 trillion, the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion, he said

“When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” Mr. Toyoda said Thursday at a year-end news conference in his capacity as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association

He said if Japan is too hasty in banning gasoline-powered cars, “the current business model of the car industry is going to collapse,” causing the loss of millions of jobs

Advocates of EVs say they can be charged at night when electricity demand is low and, over time, can grow in tandem with other green technologies such as solar power

Local news reports in early December said the Japanese government was about to announce a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars starting in 2035, while it would still allow hybrid gas-electric cars

Such a ban would follow the state of California and countries like the UK

But no announcement has come amid industry resistance

Officials at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said they haven’t made a decision on the future of gasoline cars

EV maker Tesla Inc. passed Toyota this year as the world’s most valuable auto maker by market capitalization

In a country such as Japan that gets most of its electricity from burning coal and natural gas, EVs don’t help the environment, Mr. Toyoda said

“The more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets,” he said

He said he feared government regulations would make cars a “flower on a high summit”—out of reach for the average person

With models like the Prius, Toyota is a leader in hybrid cars, which combine a gasoline engine with an electric motor and can be refueled at traditional gas stations

It doesn’t sell pure battery EVs for the mass market in the U.S. or Japan, although it does have a model that runs on a hydrogen-powered fuel cell

NOW LET’S EXAMINE THE FACTS

1. BEVs are massively more energy-efficient than ICEVs

- they can easily save 80% of the energy used by a typical gasoline car

2. Japan essentially has to import ALL of its domestic energy needs

- and it has to earn overseas every dollar of the hard currency that it needs to pay for these energy imports of Oil, Coal and Natural Gas

3. Just in the Transportation sector, 78.7% of that expensive imported energy goes to waste

- total energy consumption in the Transportation sector is (2,800 + 760) = 3,560 PJ but 2800 PJ of that goes to waste

4. Converting all of those ICEVs to BEVs would reduce the energy consumption by ~80% from 3,560 PJ down to somewhere closer to 760 PJ

5. Generating that energy domestically from Solar and Wind combined with Storage Batteries would eliminate the import of that amount of Oil

7. Investing in that new energy generation infrastructure would provide a big contribution and uplift to Japan’s chronically declining economy and GDP

8. Investing in new charging infrastructure would also provide a contribution to Japan’s chronically declining economy and GDP

9. Over the next decade this “Triple Whammy” effect of reduced oil imports + new fixed investment in renewable energy + new fixed investment in BEV charging infrastructure would benefit the Japanese economy very positively

10. In addition, the sourcing cost of that renewable energy is essentially free once the capital cost has been covered

- the lower costs of cheap energy will translate into lower transportation costs throughout every facet of the Japanese domestic economy, further improving GDP

11. By pursuing these new initiatives domestically in Japan, Japanese companies will have new skills and products to export into other people’s countries

QUESTION :

What’s not to like about all this ?

- unless you are just trying to cling to an obsolete technology and outdated economic model from the past ?