Toyota Boss Repeats Prediction of BEV Future Costing Millions of Auto Jobs

Toyota’s chairman, Akio Toyoda, repeats his previous argument that a total switch to battery-electric vehicles will cost millions of jobs in the automotive industry.

The former CEO restates his assessment at the unveiling ceremony of a bust of his father, Shoichiro Toyoda, son of the automaker’s founder Kiichiro Toyoda, at Nagoya University in central Japan, Reuters reports.

Akio Toyoda had previously voiced exactly the same concerns when still CEO of Toyota during a regular meeting of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. (JAMA) with executives from Honda, Yamaha and Isuzu, as reported by the auto website InsideEVs in September 2021.

Speaking to reporters at the event this week, he says: “There are 5.5 million people involved in the automotive industry in Japan. Among them are those who have been doing engine-related (work) for a long time. If electric vehicles simply become the only choice, including for our suppliers, those people's jobs would be lost.”

Toyota’s chairman is credited for the automaker’s robust global sales during a slowdown in BEV demand because of its multi-energy approach to automotive powertrains.

Indeed, the automaker has been riding a wave of resurgent interest in hybrid vehicles as consumers face too many hurdles to BEV adoption through both price and lagging development of public charging infrastructure.