TOKYO – Japan says it planned to suspend sales of new gasoline-powered cars by the mid-2030s, receiving criticism from Toyota Motor Corp.
chief that a speedy transition to electric vehicles could slow down the car industry.
The plan released on Friday followed similar moves by the state of California and major European countries, but has gone against car operators in a country that still makes millions of cars each year. running directly on gasoline engines.
Japan would still allow hybrid gas-electric cars to be sold after 2035 under the plan. Lots of models from Japan’s leading car manufacturers – Toyota, Honda Motor Co.
and Nissan Motor Co.
– revenue in traditional and hybrid versions.
Earlier this month, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said that if Japan was too lenient in banning gasoline-powered cars and switching to electric vehicles, “the current business model of the car industry is going to fall. ” He spoke on behalf of Japanese carmakers in his role as head of a local business association.
Mr Toyoda said the electric grid could not cope with additional demand in the summer and saw that most of Japan’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.
Government officials said carmakers need to review their business models. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga cited a different part of what Mr. Toyoda said in the Toyota chief’s statement that he supported the Japanese government’s goal of making it carbon neutral by 2050. Reducing carbon emissions should be addressed “as a strategy for growth, not as a constraint on growth, ”said Mr Suga.
The government’s plan calls for the electrification of all new cars sold in Japan from the mid-2030s onwards. That includes electric vehicles, hybrid gas-electric modules and cars where their electricity is generated by hydrogen fuel cells. The plan states that the cost of batteries should be reduced so that electric vehicles will cost about the same as gasoline powered vehicles ten years from now.
A plan summary published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry raised concerns that Europe and China were leapfrogging Japan. He claimed that sales of EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles more than tripled in the European Union in the fourth July-September to around 270,000 units, while the equivalent figure for Japan was only about 6,000.
Masayoshi Arai, a ministerial official, said that “Japan is far behind” in the electrification of vehicles.
Japanese auto operators break down at such statements, claiming that more hybrid gas-electric vehicles are being sold in Japan than in any other country. Some question whether fully electric vehicles are like the ones made by Tesla Inc.
they are more environmentally friendly than hybrids because of the carbon dioxide emitted in the manufacture of EVs and their components.
“Japan isn’t really behind,” said Toshihiro Mibe, a Honda executive who heads business advice on environmental technology.
Write to Peter Landers at [email protected] and Chieko Tsuneoka at [email protected]
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