For decades, activist investors have been the tails wagging corporate dogs.
hybrid models wasn’t good enough. They pushed to oust board chair Akio Toyoda, its president and chief executive officer at the time.Kool-Aid quickly enough, was being cagey about the company’s climate lobbying efforts, and favoured a Since EVs typically are built using about one-third fewer components than conventional gas-powered cars, suppliers to Toyota would feel the impact and jobs would be lost, a strong cultural as well as economic concern in Japan. There are also worries about ample global supplies of lithium, the main component in EV batteries.
Now, under Mr. Sato, the company has pledged to make EVs a more significant part of its product mix – but it will be a mix. Toyota plans to introduce 10 EV models by 2026, and projects EV sales of 3.5 million by 2030 – about 30 per cent of total sales.