A Toyota executive has said that fully-electric vehicles are only logical in places where electricity is producing from renewable sources.
Fabio Capano, who is Toyota’s Director of Product Communications in Europe, recently discussed powertrains that could be used in cars in the future. In regards to alternative-fuel vehicles, Toyota currently doesn’t offer any fully-electric cars of their own, but do sell several hybrids, including the Prius, as well as the Mirai which uses hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Speaking about the uptake of electric vehicles, he said they’re only worth using “in environments with renewable energy”.
He also mentioned how large-scale uptake of electric vehicles would increase demand on a country’s infrastructure and electricity production.
Besides infrastructure, Capano also mentioned the cost of battery development and production as further obstacles electric cars face in order to become mainstream.
He said: “EVs are simple and Tesla has contributed strongly to the awareness of electric cars, but battery costs are an issue.”
Capano believes plug-in hybrids are the most likely alternative fuel vehicles to become mainstream over the next few decades. He added: “In our vision of 2050, we see plug-in hybrids representing a big part of the market, along with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.”
A note of caution was sounded by Capano, however, as he also admitted that fuel cell technology “needs infrastructure and takes time”.
He added: “Just as EVs only make sense in environments with renewable energy, you can only can do hydrogen when you make it with renewable energy.”
