TOKYO – Japan says it intends to stop selling new petrol cars by mid-2030, Toyota Motor criticizes Body
chief that a hasty switch to electric vehicles could paralyze the auto industry.
The plan, launched on Friday, followed similar moves by the state of California and major European nations, but faced resistance from drivers in a country that still produces millions of cars that run on gasoline engines alone each year.
Japan would continue to allow the sale of hybrid gas-electric cars after 2035 according to plan. Many models from the top Japanese manufacturers – Toyota, Honda Motor Co.
and Nissan Motor Co.
—Come in both traditional and hybrid versions.
Earlier this month, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said that if Japan were too quick to ban petrol cars and switch to electric vehicles, “the current business model of the automotive industry will collapse.” He spoke on behalf of Japanese carmakers in his role as head of a local industry association.
Mr Toyoda said the electricity grid could not cope with the additional summer demand and noted that most of Japan’s electricity was generated by burning fossil fuels.
Government officials said carmakers needed to review their business models. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pointed to a different part of Mr Toyoda’s comments in which the Toyota chief said he supported the government’s goal of making Japan carbon-neutral by 2050. Reducing carbon emissions “should be approached as a strategy for growth, not as a limitation of growth, “Mr Suga said.
The government’s plan is to electrify all new cars sold in Japan by the mid-2030s. This includes electric vehicles, gas-electric hybrid models and cars whose electricity is generated by hydrogen fuel cells. The plan stipulates that the cost of batteries should be reduced so that electric vehicles cost about the same as petrol vehicles over a decade.
A draft plan published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expressed concern that Europe and China had jumped ahead of Japan. It noted that sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles tripled in the European Union in the July-September quarter to around 270,000 units, while the equivalent for Japan was just around 6,000.
Masayoshi Arai, a ministry official, said “Japan is far behind” in electrifying vehicles.
Japanese carmakers oppose such statements, saying that more gas-electric hybrid vehicles are sold in Japan than in any other country. Some wonder if all-electric vehicles, such as those manufactured by Tesla Inc.
they are more environmentally friendly than hybrids, given the carbon dioxide emitted in the production of electric vehicles and their components.
“It’s not the case that Japan is behind,” said Toshihiro Mibe, a Honda executive who heads an industry council for environmental technology.
Write to Peter Landers at [email protected] and Chieko Tsuneoka at [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8