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Comment by a-saleh | Hacker News Reader

I thought Totyota is still one of the EV leaders. Alongside Kia and Hyundai?

Toyota pioneered hybrids, but they remain committed to the idea that a fossil fuel component is necessary. They continue to push for hydrogen, which is generated primarily from natural gas. With a hand-wave that maybe it'll be renewable some day.

But the hydrogen infrastructure doesn't exist, and they haven't solved any of the real problems with it. So they're stuck flacking technology that was amazing in the 90s.

It's because japan can't really compete with china in the EV battery space (nor can anyone else really).

By betting on hydrogen, it's possible to take the lead in a smaller pond as a bigger fish. Tho i'm not a believer in hydrogen - it's too difficult, and costs just as much to transition to that as it would electric. It'd be easier to synthesize carbon-based fuels, and that leverages the existing infrastructure for petrol in place for use.

Toyota has a magical vaporware battery that they announce is just a couple years away every couple years. We're likely to see general quantum computing and an operational fusion plant before Toyota productionizes their first "real" EV with said battery.

lol no. They have been dragged kicking and screaming into offering just one model, the bz4x.

They also spend a lot of money lobbying against electrification regulation, because they really don’t want to make EVs.

They were late to the game but are definitely investing more now.

They have three full EV's, in rough order of size: CH-R, BZ (previously called BZ4x), and BZ Woodland (basically a long station wagon version of the former).

Subaru is also selling a tweaked and rebadged version of each. I believe these are all made in Subaru factories with Toyota power-train components.

They're also priced pretty competitively.

Toyota barely makes any fully EV cars, and their bZ series hasn't been very great. They have a number of hybrids, but even those are often based on dated battery technology. They're still selling new cars with NiMH batteries.

They have some incredibly reliable hybrid drivetrains, but have weak EVs and ancient battery technology throughout.

Hormuz might change their mind

Toyota’s leadership is staunchly anti-EV

Toyota sells EVs. They sell the bZ3, bZ4, bZ5, bZ7, bZ3X, bZ Woodland, C-HR+, Lexus RZ, Lexus ES, and soon the Hilux EV.

The Lexus ES: https://electrek.co/2026/03/19/lexus-launches-es-ev-with-300...

They do, however they have been very vocal in their reluctance to invest in that strategy.

Toyota's strategy is working. They have been the best selling automaker for the last six years straight. Last year they had record sales:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota...

As time goes on BEVs will make up a greater percentage of their sales.

As BEVs get cheaper and more practical demand will keep going up. Toyota will follow BEV demand.

What I said wasn’t a criticism, simply a fact.

I’m personally a huge fan of hybrids

Not at all, they were a hybrid leader long time ago but they never had a good pure EV and are only starting last few years.

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