2023-07-15 06:10:33
For years, Toyota was very skeptical of electric cars, and the situation, although it has improved, is still more pro-hybrid. The former head of the world’s leading car manufacturer believes that hybrids are better than electric cars in terms of environmental impact. Doubts regarding electric cars led to the removal of former CEO Toyoda: but what if he was right? James Gilboy from The Drive tries to find an answer to this question: “If we take a closer look at how efficiently hybrids and electric cars use their batteries, Toyota is indeed right: hybrids have a greater role in reducing carbon dioxide than for electric vehicles”. Gilboy points out: “Electric vehicles emit less carbon dioxide over their lifetime than vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine. However, the spread of electric vehicles is hampered by autonomy problems, few charging networks and higher prices for the batteries used to drive them. It should also be taken into account that the supply of batteries will not meet the demand in the next two years. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence told the Financial Times that demand for lithium will increase fivefold by 2035, while the Boston Consulting Group predicts a severe shortage by 2025. In fact, switching to full hybrid models might reduce emissions faster than electric vehicles, at least in the short term. In this regard, Drive made a short comparison between two models of the same car, namely a Ford F-150, the best-selling car in the USA. The Lightning (electric) version can show a third of CO2 emissions with a 98 kW battery. The F-150 Hybrid, on the other hand, works with only a 1.5 kWh battery, emits more CO2 than the Lightning, but with a 65 times “smaller” electric drivetrain than its green counterpart. James Gilboy concluded his thorough analysis as follows: “By using its limited battery stock on a small number of (expensive) electric vehicles, the automotive industry is being praised by investors and the public, despite implementing an inefficient decarbonisation system. It manages to greenwash a handful of metrics while not actually reducing CO2 emissions as much as it might. The numbers strongly suggest that the new hybrid cars are more efficient and will become more so as battery technology improves and, hopefully, the range increases.”
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