Toyota Named Third Most Obstructive Company Towards Climate Change

[cawimmer430]

Maybe because they sense that this whole EV thingy is the wrong way to go...


Toyota Named Third Most Obstructive Company Towards Climate Change After ExxonMobil, Chevron

Toyota has been named the third most obstructive organization for lobbying governments that set climate policies. Two of the largest oil companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, were named the top two most obstructive.
The report by InfluenceMap, which was investigating corporations and climate change lobbying tactics, ranked Toyota as the worst carmaker on their list. Other automakers name-checked were BMW (18th), Daimler (24th), and Hyundai (25th).

"The corporate playbook for holding back climate policy has come a long way from science denialism but it is every bit as damaging," Ed Collins, a director at InfluenceMap told The Guardian. "What we are seeing is not limited to efforts to undermine regulations directly. It also involves prolific and highly sophisticated narrative capture techniques, leading governments down incredibly dangerous paths."

This is not the first time Toyota has been singled out for its lobbying tactics. According to an earlier report by The New York Times, the Japanese automaker campaigned congressional leaders behind closed doors to push back on the Biden administration's plans to accelerate EV adoption. The Japanese company has also stagnated in EPA figures, which show that the brand's overall fuel economy figures are now in the bottom tier of economy ratings.

In 2020, a watchdog for campaign contributions found that Toyota was the largest corporate donor by far this year to Republicans in Congress who disputed the 2020 presidential election result. Many of these politicians had also been identified as questioning the scientific basis for climate change.

Back in Japan, Toyota's Chairman, Akio Toyoda, claimed Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all vehicles were electric. He added that the infrastructure needed to support a complete transition to EVs would cost the country the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion. And in India, executives attached to the brand decried the country's target of going all-EV by 2030.

Toyota has long argued that PHEVs and hydrogen tech may offer better long-term results in the fight against climate change. The Japanese manufacturer has since revealed their first electric crossover, jointly developed with Subaru. It's the first of seven fully-electric bZ vehicles expected.


Link: https://www.carscoops.com/2021/11/toyota-named-third-most-obstructive-company-towards-climate-change-after-exxonmobil-chevron/

[Eye of the Tiger]

What about all the Priuses!?

[r0tor]

Maybe that's why they are a decade behind the ev game

[cawimmer430]

Maybe that's why they are a decade behind the ev game

Personally I feel the future should involve a mix of eFuels, Fuel-Cell and BEV. Unlike ICE cars, BEV will not work for the masses and the governments know this. Their plan is to force people into public transportation and away from private car ownership. Say hello to Socialism/Communism where "we are all equal, but some are more equal"...

I spent October 26th to 28th attending the AIRTEC exhibition in Munich where I was hired as the official photographer. This is an event where aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers meet. Since I was also tasked with photographing the important people at the event as they gave speeches, I was able to listen to the topics about the future of air-travel. There were some off-topics lectures such as the future of automobiles, and basically all experts giving speeches at this event agreed that BEVs are a dead-end. Why? Not only because of the range and charging issues, but also because of the immense resources which are needed to produce the batteries and the charging infrastructure. They admitted that small city-type of EVs are the way to go, because the batteries here are still relatively light and small and provide enough range to be used in a city environment:  basically they don't waste as much resources. BEV style big SUVs and luxury cars on the other hand with huge and heavy batteries are a waste of precious resources according to them.

And in case you're interested about the airplane side of things, this is what the experts were discussing at the event.

Basically, battery-powered aircraft are only usable for short range trips around town (air taxis) and in the suburbs. The poor energy density of current batteries and their hefty weight are the reason for this. There were a number of companies here from Germany, the USA and China who are pioneering this field. I had no idea, but in China they are already in testing service - flying completely autonomous - delivering 2-4 passengers from one end of the city to another where they start and land on and from roofs. Look up eHang.

Hydrogen is the future in air travel. Short to midrange airplanes can run on Fuel-Cell type power plants turning a propeller engine or burn liquid hydrogen in their jet engines.

For long-range airplanes there's only SAF - Sustainable Aviation Fuel, derived from hydrogen. So, start investing int hydrogen stocks now!

Also, there was a chemist from Kawasaki (yes, the Japanese company famous for its motorcycles) at the event who explained the strategy of this company. They buy brown coal from Australia and refine it into hydrogen. The CO2 created from this process is then stored in underground tanks preventing it from reaching the atmosphere. This was very interesting.