Akio Toyoda, President & CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation, and founder and owner of the ROOKIE Racing team, is participating under the racer name “Morizo” in the 25-hour endurance race in Thailand on December 17 and 18, 2022 in a hydrogen-powered Corolla.
This is the first time that environmentally friendly hydrogen technology has been used in a race outside Japan. This moment is also an opportunity for Toyota to demonstrate various approaches to accelerating action towards Carbon Neutrality.
Toyota showcases and demonstrates a variety of clean technologies, including Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) that offer a variety of green options to customers across markets Asia.
Hao Quoc Tien, CEO of Asia Region, and other senior executives from Toyota, joined Toyoda during the 2-day program.
Developing and showcasing the Hydrogen powered internal combustion engine vehicle (HiCEV) marks a new step in Toyota's technology to achieve its global commitment to Carbon Neutrality by 2050.
Toyota believes that 'carbon is the enemy', and therefore Toyota believes in the Multiple Pathway approach by offering customers a choice of various vehicle powertrain technologies, including HEV, PHEV, BEV, FCEV, HiCEV, or even bio-fuel vehicles.
This allows each customer to choose a cleaner, greener mobility option that suits their economic circumstances, energy sources, charging infrastructure readiness, industry policies, and usage needs.
This multi-track approach allows decarbonization to start immediately, without waiting for the maturity of all supports such as infrastructure and affordability, and can therefore be scaled up through accessibility.
This is in line with Toyota's “Mobility for All” goals, and enables everyone to participate in the decarbonization journey. Toyota believes that the impact of clean technologies can only be felt with their widespread application across global markets.
Beyond new vehicles, Toyota also believes in appropriate life-cycle actions to truly decarbonize mobility and its ecosystems, and earnestly address climate change from cradle to grave.
Toyota has carefully considered how best to move to mass electrification and be accessible in every market.
Through the '3 Lenses' approach that allows companies to understand well the factors that support to accelerate carbon neutrality and electrification. These are 1) Emission Reduction, through well to wheel and lifecycle actions, 2) Economic Impact, including for customers, government and industry, and most importantly 3) Customer Acceptance.
In particular, for Emissions Reduction, the consideration is to evaluate total emissions, including tailpipe (tank-to-wheel) power generation (well-to-tank; e.g. fuel, electricity, etc.) and life cycle emissions (from manufacturing and life -use of time).
Across various markets, it is recognized that the power generation mix, including the ratio of renewables, plays an important role in determining emission levels in each market. Enabling mass adoption of electric vehicles (xEV) also requires Economic Impact Enablers.
xEV is typically more expensive due to battery costs, and other advanced technology. It is believed that in order to increase accessibility, there must be incentives to promote all xEV adoptions in an equitable manner on the basis of emissions.
BEVs and PHEVs also need charging infrastructure, where investment and incentives are required. Government incentives and subsidies are needed to accelerate xEV adoption and rollout of infrastructure, while balancing transitions across supply chains and supporting industries.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the mass adoption of clean mobility options depends on customer acceptance. Especially in emerging markets in Asia, customers are very diverse in terms of mobility needs, conditions of use, purchasing power, social context, etc.
Considering that mobility provides opportunities for education, employment, commerce, health care, etc., Toyota wants to provide a clean and green service “Mobility for All” and in line with the Sustainable Development Goal of 'Leave No One Behind'.
Under these conditions, there is a need to meet customer expectations for electrification, including ease and accessibility to infrastructure, price, safety, range and charging time. Unlocking such conditions will support a faster and wider shift in electrification.
There is a need to move from words to actions. During the race in Thailand, Toyota emphasized that a diverse market requires diverse choices, where people can achieve neutrality carbonity and mobility for all at speed and scale.
HiCEV, although in its early stages of development and use, is yet another effort in our journey towards a cleaner and greener planet.
