In August 2022, the California Air Resources Board decided to ban the sale of new internal combustion powered light vehicles in the state starting in 2035. requirements.
“Realistically, it seems a bit difficult to actually achieve,” Toyoda said through an interpreter at the event, according to Reuters.
He went into a bit more detail during the presentation to the dealer. “But like the fully autonomous cars we should be driving now, BEVs are just going to take longer to go mainstream than the media would have us believe,” said Toyoda.
Toyoda is not the first executive from the automaker to express these concerns over the California mandate. “I don’t think the market is ready. I don’t think the infrastructure is ready. And even if you are ready to buy them, and if you can afford them … they are still too high,” he said. Jack Hollis, Vice President of Sales for Toyota in North America.
Toyota is California’s best-selling automaker, according to Reuters. So, the company has good reason to have an electric model for sale there by 2035.
The automaker is also working on this product. Toyota is investing $5.6 billion in battery production in the United States and Japan. Of that money, about $2.5 billion was used for Toyota Battery Manufacturing in North Carolina. The first packages will arrive between 2024 and 2026.
The bZ4X is the first in Toyota’s new family of EVs. The company had to stop shipping just two months after launch due to an issue where the wheel hub bolts could loosen and potentially cause the wheels to come off. Recently fixed that problemallow sales to start again.
China is getting the bZ3 sedan, and there’s no indication it’s coming to the US at this time. The BZ5 will come later as a larger four-door. A hybrid vehicle with a solid-state battery will join the range in 2025. Toyota and Stellantis will also launch an electric commercial van.
California may just be a starting point for state governments to limit ICE sales. New York Governor Kathy Hochul pushed for a similar ban there.
