Akio Toyoda, President & CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation and founder and team owner of Rookie Racing, participated under the driver name “Morizo” in the 25-hour endurance race in Thailand on December 17th and 18th in the hydrogen-powered Corolla.
With an opportunity to demonstrate its multiple pathway approaches to accelerate actions towards Carbon Neutrality by displaying and demonstrating various clean technologies, including Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV), this was the first time that Toyota has used this technology in a race outside Japan.
Notably, this also marks another step in Toyota’s technological efforts towards achieving global commitment to Carbon Neutrality by 2050, a press release from Toyota said.
During the race in Thailand, the automaker emphasised that a diverse market needs diverse choices wherein it can achieve carbon neutrality and mobility for all at speed and scale.
In multiple markets, it is recognised that the power generation mix, including the renewable energy ratio, plays a critical role in defining emission levels in each market.
Enabling mass adoption of electrified vehicles (EVs) also needs Economic Impact enablers as they are typically costlier due to the cost of the battery and other advanced technology.
Moreover, BEV and PHEV will also need charging infrastructure, where investment and incentives are required.
The government’s incentives and subsidies are needed to accelerate xEV adoption and infrastructure roll-out while balancing the transition throughout the supply chain and ancillary industry.
Carbon Is The Enemy
Toyota believes that ‘carbon is the enemy’, and hence is working towards a multiple pathway approach by offering customers the choice of various vehicle powertrain technologies, including HEV, PHEV, BEV, FCEV, HiCEV, or even bio-fuel vehicles.
Moreover, this is also in line with Toyota’s “Mobility for All” objective and allows everyone to participate in the decarbonisation journey.
The multiple pathways approach allows decarbonisation to start immediately, without waiting for the maturity of all the enablers, such as infrastructure and affordability, and hence can gain scale through accessibility, Toyota said.
Considering that mobility provides opportunities for education, employment, trade, healthcare etc., the company aims to provide clean and green “Mobility for All” and in line with the Sustainable Development Goal of ‘Leave No One Behind’, the press release added.
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