The shift to EV is my biggest fear, says Toyota boss Akio Toyoda

Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda has declared his lack of enthusiasm for electric cars, revealing he feels “alone” in his love for internal combustion engines as the car industry shifts towards electric vehicles. 

Speaking exclusively to Auto Express’s sister brand Carwow, Toyoda was asked about his biggest fears in the automotive industry for the future, and said “everybody shifting to EV, that was the biggest fear, for me.” 

Toyota’s chairman added: “only three or four years ago, I was the only one to say I love the smell, I love the sounds, I love engines and I want to keep the jobs for engine suppliers.”

Toyoda says not every senior figure in the automotive industry shares his passion. “But it seems to me I’m the only one, I feel very alone.” 

While Toyota has adopted pure-electric cars, it hasn’t been with the same commitment that we’ve seen previously in the brand’s approach to hybrid vehicles. Only last week Toyota cut back on a new electric saloon called the LF-ZC from its luxury sub-brand Lexus. Aimed squarely at the likes of the BMW i3 and Mercedes C-Class Electric, it was also going to be Toyota and Lexus’ first car equipped with solid-state battery technology. 

Speaking on Toyota’s multi-fuel strategy and continuing with petrol-powered enthusiast cars while other brands shift to EV performance cars, Toyoda also said: “If they say to me ‘hey you’re too late’ you should’ve shifted to BEV, well we are people who love cars and those people and myself fight even within the companies.” 

“If I only have to make a good balance sheet or profitable things, or only have to make carbon neutral, it’s not exciting.” said the Toyota boss. 

Toyoda was speaking at round three of the Super Taikyu endurance series last weekend, held at Fuji Speedway. He’s been central to Toyota’s development of its Gazoo Racing brand, which continues to utilise motorsport to develop road cars like the GR Yaris, GR GT and even a new mid-engined sports car. During development of GR Yaris, Toyoda explained: “I stayed in the training centre, everyday I drove it, everyday I broke it and everyday he fixed it”, pointing towards Naohiko Saito, the chief engineer of GR Yaris.

The Fuji round of the Super Taikyu series saw the Concept M - the GR Yaris testbed for Toyota’s new mid-engined car, complete 473 laps, coming fourth in its class. Within the same race Toyota also ran a hydrogen-powered GR Yaris, partly driven by Toyoda himself - securing 10 more laps than the Concept M.

The Toyota GR Yaris hot hatch has become a hugely sought-after car for Toyota with 60,000 sold globally. Despite it only coming to the UK in limited numbers, there are plenty of appealing used examples of the GR Yaris available on the Buy A Car service now with prices starting under £25,000. 

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