WASHINGTON – Senior White House adviser John Podesta said Toyota Motor Corp he “had been the latecomer” in the production electric vehicles but he is now “fully engaged” after meeting with senior company officials recently at the Japanese automaker.
“I think they will stay with the plug-in hybrids for a while, maybe longer than some of the other companies, but now they’re fully committed under their new electrification leadership,” Podesta told Reuters reporters and editors in a panel discussion on Tuesday.
Met Toyota Research Institute CEO Gill Pratt and Toyota North America Chief Executive Officer Christopher Reynolds.
Last month, Toyota said it would introduce 10 new battery-powered models and forecast sales of 1.5 million EVs annually by 2026. Toyota, including its Lexus luxury brand, now only has three drums models on the market and sold fewer than 25,000 worldwide last year.
Investors and environmental groups have criticized Toyota as slower to embrace battery-powered cars Tesla and other.
Toyota in August said it would increase its planned investment in a North Carolina battery plant from $1.29 billion to $3.8 billion.
Last month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency proposed sweep emissions cuts for new cars AND truck until 2032. EPA estimate 67% of new vehicle sales by then will be electric vehicles.
The Biden administration has repeatedly refused to approve setting a firm date to phase out gasoline-only vehicles as California has. “I don’t think we think it’s necessary at this point,” Podesta said on Tuesday.
White House infrastructure adviser Mitch Landrieu and Podesta met with the Tesla CEO Elon Musk in January. Landrieu said in Reuters’ joint interview with Podesta that the administration has had constructive conversations with Musk about electric vehicles.
“I’m a key player. They were the first ones out there,” said Landrieu. “They’ve been very open and forthcoming and have been a great partner.”
Biden has pledged to build a U.S. network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030 using $7.5 billion in infrastructure funds.
“We got (Tesla) … to open up their network, which got us much closer and much faster to the ultimate goal of building the backbone of EV charging stations. We have 500,000 to go. We need about more than 3 million” Landrieu said.
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