EVs face obstacles
He said the government should start with standard HVs before promoting plug-in hybrids (PHVs), and later fuel-cell vehicles (FHVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), which still face some obstacles to widespread adoption by motorists.
“Toyota uses hybrids as the common platform for developing EVs, PHVs and FCVs,” he said.
Toyota has sold 8 million HVs worldwide, while EVs currently have only a 0.3-per-cent share of Japan’s automobile market.
Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of PTT, said the benefits from EVs would be reduced significantly if the electricity powering such cars still had to be principally generated by fossil fuels.