EVA is Holding Toyota Accountable

Over the last few decades, Toyota’s hypocritical anti-EV, anti-climate lobbying efforts have revealed the company’s true colors. They want consumers to see them as a green leader and clean vehicle pioneer – but their hostility to zero-emissions electric vehicles and stricter emissions standards proves they are a profit-driven polluter that needs to be held accountable by advocates and consumers.

Instead of accelerating EV development to meet consumer demand, Toyota is trying to mislead EV-curious customers by marketing gas-powered hybrids as “practical electric vehicles” and boasting about their “electrified” fleet of hybrids. Toyota knows that most customers do not understand that an “electrified” car is not an all-electric vehicle – and Toyota is trying to exploit that misunderstanding to dupe EV curious consumers. Toyota is hiding behind industry buzzwords like “electrified” to trick customers looking for electric cars and protect its image as a climate-friendly company – all while working hard to stop any new climate regulations.

The facts are clear: If you can’t plug your car in, it doesn’t run on electricity, and thus it’s not an electric vehicle.

As the world’s largest automaker, Toyota’s gas-powered cars are a significant contributor to the climate crisis. Just this year, they reported that their emissions rose 45%! The Japanese automaker is certainly aware of the damage they are causing but is actively resisting the EV transition, lobbying governments in an effort to stall or completely derail the progress in eliminating gas-powered cars and trucks.

In fact, Toyota has been ranked the worst companies in the world across all industries regarding anti-climate lobbying behind oil giants like Exxon and Chevron, and the most obstructive automaker on climate policy for the last two years. According to the independent International Council on Clean Transportation, Toyota scores near the bottom on progress in developing and producing zero-emission vehicles. Earlier this year, Toyota sent a team of lobbyists to Washington, D.C. to talk to anti-climate politicians about their frustrations with new EPA regulations designed to accelerate the EV transition.

While the automaker lobbies our elected leaders to stop new emissions rules that would protect our air and our planet, Toyota also platforms and publicizes scientists who reject the idea of an all-electric vehicle future. Their paid spokespeople argue instead for gas-powered hybrids as a more efficient and environmentally friendly alternative, which they are not.

Electric Vehicles Steal Toyota Market Share

It’s no surprise Toyota is increasingly hostile to EVs. EVs are stealing Toyota customers every day. Toyota cars are the most common brand traded in for used EVs. Moreover, electric vehicles make up 21% of California's new car sales through June 2023, and Toyota’s Corolla lost its spot as the best-selling car in the world to the Tesla Model Y.

Now Toyota is trying to avoid criticism for its anti-EV behavior by claiming it is developing a breakthrough in EV battery technology. And while it received great fanfare for its solid-state battery announcement, Toyota has been promising solid-state battery technology since at least 2010 and has yet to deliver. It also happens that Toyota made the announcement while facing a shareholder resolution from frustrated investors concerned about the company’s failure to take advantage of the market opportunities for real electric vehicles.

Toyota does not need to deliver a breakthrough in solid-state batteries to win over customers – it just needs to start making affordable, reliable, 100% electric vehicles that people want to buy. But Toyota has demonstrated a complete lack of interest in adapting to the changing vehicle landscape and the electric future. It is not interested in innovation. It wants to protect the status quo and its fat profit margins. It wants to keep selling vehicles powered by gasoline and decades-old hybrid technology as long as possible.

Toyota intends to mislead customers with “electrified” cars that run on gas-powered engines and have tailpipes. Put simply, Toyota is prioritizing profits over progress and we must hold them to account so the world’s largest automaker will finally change its ways.