Previously Toyota has argued that the automotive market was not ready or is not moving towards electrification, this was supported with the slowdown of electric car sales the cause of which is varying according to industry experts. Some have said battery anxiety and others big oil is fighting back to prevent the adoption of electric vehicles.
Regardless of how we look at it, the electric vehicle age is undeniably upon us, all countries have accepted this regardless of their intensity of acceptance of this fact. For China, it has totally done that since it was already behind in the manufacturing of the Internal combustion engine vehicles, behind Japan and Germany, but as we know them, the Chinese were not sparing any effort to catch up of improve their internal combustion engine technology as we will see later in this article.
The United States and Europe both have internal combustion leading OEMs but have also accepted that they can’t escape the electric ages, this recognition has led them to increase tariffs on Chinese made electric cars, 100% by the United States and 38% by Europe. This step indeed speaks to the realisation of the inevitability of this technology but also of the fact that they are behind and need to catch up, in their minds the only way to catch up is to block off more advance technologies in this class from China as they wait for their OEMs to catch up. Whether this will work or not, only time will tell.
Then comes the Japanese who have let the Automobile industry for a very long time due to their ability to manufacture durable but cheaper internal combustion engine vehicles, this led them to overtake the United States who found it difficult to rapidly adopt. For a long time, Europe and the United States have been known for manufacturing products for rich and not for the masses, this has been a great handicap, and it is again showing with the emergence of the Chinese Automobile industry.
Back to the Japanese, the country has been used to making durable and cheaper automobile technologies but there is a new and more formidable competitor in town, China. The Japanese automobile industry OfCourse downplayed electric vehicles as it had already successfully ventured into hybrid vehicles, which was a very good step but only incremental. Revolutionary products like the electric vehicle need total acceptance and big moves which big companies like Toyota have-not the agility to adopt to.
Toyota decided to emphasize hybrid as the new technology which people want and not purely electric vehicle, of course Toyota initially looked right on the money as initial phases have been characterized by some confusion by those adopting the electric vehicle technology. This led to increase in hybrid sales and gave Toyota a false sense of being right not knowing that it is falling further behind with not adopting fully electric vehicles.
As if Toyota’s denials are not enough, BYD has done the unthinkable, it has produced in the BYD QIN L the most efficient hybrid vehicle which can cover over 2000 KM on a single tank and charge, this is indeed defeating Toyota at its own game while leading it in the purely electric segment. This development is not only a threat of annihilation to Toyota but also to the American OEMs. It is almost as if BYD and China are saying there is nowhere to run, you are surrounded on all sides.
This means that it is not only European and American OEMs who are in trouble, but Toyota too might be in huge trouble with the launch of the BYD Qin L.