Toyota CEO Takes Over EV Division In Effort To Catch Up With The Rest Of The Market

Being "slow to embrace" EVs is prudent. First, the business case for EVs still isn't economically feasible. Secondly, like the early days of the PC, technology will be leaping. Letting others stick their necks out first is how a mainstream company like Toyota stays big. If anything thinks Toyota is behind in developing technology, that person is an idiot. This is just saying that Toyota will wade into the market.

That's why Toyota is not known for being a leader. After all, leaders are hard to come by and there is plenty of room for second fiddlers.

HenryN: You're right! Toyota is NOT known as an innovator. They are, however, amongst the hottest sellers (measured in units sold as well as market share), and they're big-time profitable.

Leadership is always on the "bleeding edge," where the greatest risks and the most failures live. "Playing it safe" can be a viable alternative, as Toyota has amply demonstrated.

Mdarringer...the 3 biggest automakers in the world are going all in on EVs yet somehow you know best. Automakers who don't invest in EVs now will be left behind.

@malba2367 Just "the 3 biggest automakers in the world are going all in on EVs..." doesn't mean they are economically viable (i.e. profit producers). You can base your logic on fanboy emotion or you can get real. EVs are not yet in their prime time as money makers. That is fact.

Toyota isn't behind with EVs. They will get into the market when they can produce an EV that (1) has a cost similar to a similarly sized ICE car and or when an EV can be recharged in the same time as filling a tank with gas.

Anyone with a brain would predict than a Lexus EV is much more likely than a Toyota EV. The reason is obvious to anyone capable of logical thought.

Everybody and their uncle wants a piece of the pit. It's a tiny pie. Less than 1% market share. Think Blackberry, today, in a sea of smartphones.

It's a tiny pie, and it's shrinking, and everybody and their uncle wants a piece of that shrinking EV pie. More EV manufacturers wanting a piece of a tiny pie means every manufacturers will surely get an even tinier piece. Some existing pieces will get still smaller, so if you have a piece of the EV pie, tiny as it might be, yours might shrink to become even smaller. It's not a good time for EV manufacturers right now.

Being first doesn't matter. First EV guy sure doesn't have the biggest piece of that tiny EV pie.

Being biggest doesn't matter. The guy who currently has the biggest piece of the EV pie -- that being Tesla Motors -- is bleeding red ink. It always has.

What matters today, in my view, is that all these "early adopter" EV guinea pigs, both from the manufacturers' and consumers' perspective, are helping to advance the learnings in that field, and manufacturers are making substantial improvements in all sorts of ways, batteries and drivetrains being two big ones. Thank you, early adopters, for investing your money in this huge EV R&D project!

What will matter in the future, is when the EV market share is growing steadily and substantially (the ever-expanding EV pie), and when it's big enough to readily support new EV manufacturers (the giant EV pie), and reward them with a large, sustainable profit! That's when it'll be worth a manufacturer's while to jump in and want a piece of the ever-expanding, gigantic EV pie... and make a profit while doing it. At that time, when EVs are commonplace, a manufacturer who is new to the EV arena will be able to take a BIG piece of the pie simply by creating a compelling offering, and make a profit at it.

Thanks again, EV manufacturing and consuming early adopters, for investing in this huge R&D project. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my ICE vehicle. And so are over 99% of consumers.

It's not about being first, it's about building up technology and engineering capabilities. Battery technology is very different than ice, and the company who develops the best battery tech will have a huge advantage. Tesla has a big lead right now and the big boys are playing catch up.

Hence the raging debate whether Tesla is a tech company or a car company (or an energy company after acquiring Solar City).

If it's simply a car company in the traditional sense, then Tesla is small potato compared to the giant ICE automakers. But when looked at as a tech company that provides personal transportation which is far less dependent on - or in some cases independent of - fossil fuel, then it is many years ahead of the other guys.

In term of being a leader, it takes vision and courage. In the wild, an alpha dog gets to mate and pass on its superior genes whereas the omega dogs get the scraps and the privilege to survive. The business world is far more complicated, but is the same in essence - if one doesn't lead, one can still survive but doesn't get to dictate where the industry goes.

Toyota was a successful pioneer in the modern hybrid car with its Prius. It gambled on the FCEV and essentially lost. Now is the time to correct the mistake and join the rEVolution.

Toyota took on a much bigger innovation with the fuel cell EV and leads the industry just like they did with hybrid vehicles. It is that a hydrogen infrastructure is too big for Toyota to develop, and the governments that are trying to force a zero emission solution in their markets.