Toyota Just Proved That Electric Vehicles Aren’t Going Anywhere
More importantly, neither is electrification. The world’s largest automaker’s next moves show where everything is headed.
“So this whole electric car thing, that’s all going away now, huh?” That was the opening salvo in a recent conversation I had, and it highlighted a common misconception. The speaker wasn’t an EV owner, nor did he follow the automotive industry closely. He was, in other words, a regular person. And in a world where political winds shift and media narratives change, it’s easy to see why the EV sector might seem uncertain to the average consumer.
Consider the following:
- Differing political views on EVs.
- Potential loss of tax credits.
- A perceived retreat in federal support for EV infrastructure.
- Hesitancy in market adoption for EVs due to high cost, range anxiety, or lack of charging infrastructure.
When you take all of that together, it’s understandable why an ordinary person might think the EV sector was a flash in the pan. Another technology that was supposed to take off but didn’t—the 2025 equivalent of laserdisc or 3D television or the metaverse. But that’s not the case at all. More crucially, neither is electrification—the act of adding battery power to automobiles in some form or fashion. And Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, may just be the one to prove it.
The Toyota EV Boom You Haven’t Seen Yet
This perspective is particularly strong in the United States, where EV adoption lags behind other parts of the world. The U.S. doesn’t have the same direct experience with China’s EV, plug-in hybrid, and extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) boom. It doesn’t live with climate-conscious Europe’s tougher fuel economy and emissions rules, and it doesn’t have access to as many new EV options as they do. The U.S. is largely still a gas-car country.
EV adoption hit 10% in the U.S. last year, but it’s still concentrated in coastal areas, big cities, and warmer-weather climates like Texas and Florida. But Toyota seems to have noticed something crucial: people are, in fact, buying its EVs. Though the bZ4X hasn’t always been the most competitive EV when it comes to range or fast charging, it still had a banner year in 2024, with sales up nearly 100% in the U.S. alone. The story was even bigger elsewhere. The bZ4X was Norway’s best-selling car—not just EV, but car—in January. Toyota says it’s among the top five best-selling models in its category around Europe.
Surveys consistently show that people want great EVs from the Japanese auto brands they trust, especially among consumers who love the hybrids they pioneered and want to take the next step.
Perhaps Toyota didn’t expect the EV sector to take off as it did, or it ended up getting the timing just right. Either way, this was the vibe at Toyota’s Kenshiki Forum last week in Brussels, where these new EVs debuted: “You spoke. We listened. And we’re doing this because you asked for it.”
Toyota’s top brass has long been openly skeptical of a full, industry-wide shift to EVs. It has instead championed what it calls a “multi-pathway” approach to reducing carbon emissions:
- Lots of different technologies
- Different options instead of one single solution, like going all-electric.
That’s why it’s also making more:
- Hybrids
- Plug-in hybrids
- Efficient new gas engines
- Hydrogen
(It should be noted that it helps to have Toyota’s massive resources, capital, and manufacturing scale to even offer all of those different choices.)
Yet it’s often felt like EVs were the afterthought in that strategy. That seems to be changing now. Besides the updated bZ4X, the new Urban Cruiser, and the new C-HR+, there are also at least three more Toyota EVs due to be unveiled before the end of next year. One is another SUV, one is probably an electric Land Cruiser, and another is very clearly a pickup truck, which could end up being a game-changer in that space. That doesn’t even include Lexus, which is about to have its own electric onslaught.
“You can see that we are really committed to, and passionate about, the BEVs,” said Yoshihiro Nakata, the President and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe, referring to battery-electric vehicles. “Even if we do our best to create ever-better cars, it’s ultimately the customer that decides. And when we talk about the customer’s decision, they increasingly choose electrification.”
Nakata said that in Europe last year, 74% of Toyota customers chose cars that were electrified in some way, including a 20% increase in EV sales. Not bad, considering it did this with a scarce few electric models on offer. But this reflects a trend we see all over the world. If you make it easy and affordable for people to break up with gasoline, or to just use less of it, they will do it.
The Hybrid Bet Is Part Of The Same Challenge
A funny thing happened as EVs made more and more headlines in 2023 and 2024. Many people bristled at the idea of going all-electric, but the concept did seem to make them more open to hybrids instead. No automaker has benefitted more from this trend than Toyota. For those customers who aren’t ready to go fully electric yet, Toyota’s hybrid bet paid off handsomely last year. It’s doubling down in 2025 as it aims for 50% of its total U.S. sales to be electrified in some way.
Contrary to what a lot of ardent EV supporters say, I don’t think that hybrids and fully electric cars need to be an “either-or” thing. If you buy a hybrid, you’re burning less gas and creating less emissions.
Until the EV charging infrastructure gets more robust and pure-EV prices come down, that may be a better option for many people. The problem arises when an automaker runs the risk of never getting around to building competitive EV products. Toyota seems to be reversing course on that front.
For now, at least, if Americans want EVs, then they really want hybrids. The car companies that are offering them—Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Kia, even Mazda—are having a banger of a time as a result. The ones that aren’t are suffering.
“Until we are able to bring a hybrid solution to the U.S., how to stabilize the U.S. market situation and survive until then is the most important question,” a source close to Nissan’s tumultuous resetting told Automotive News this week.
This is all part of the same challenge. My new friend at the bar said he thinks hybrids are the way to go, not EVs. That alone is progress. Even the anti-EV crowd has started to accept hybrids, a tacit admission that the fuel efficient vehicles we want aren’t possible with gasoline alone.
Pure internal combustion vehicles are too inefficient in operation, which means:
- They are unable to recapture their kinetic energy
- They are approaching the end of their evolutionary tree
Making them more efficient requires an electric motor and batteries anyway. That means all of the problems people have with battery sourcing, longevity, and costs are going to have to be solved anyway. Because without help from an electric motor, today’s gasoline cars are capping out around 40 mpg. For trucks, far lower. Yet consumers continue to demand higher fuel economy and lower running costs. To provide those, you’re going to need some sort of electrified powertrain.
This is why I’ve stopped explaining this current moment to people in terms of EVs. It’s more about electrification—a long-term bet on American drivers opting for electric power in some form. Even if you’re a die-hard EV skeptic, electrification in some form or another is a settled matter. The car industry has always chased power and efficiency. Adding electric power, or using it exclusively, will deliver what’s next. More efficient gas engines may be needed for many places around the world in the interim, but anyone who thinks those are the long-term future is at odds with established science and technological progress.
Why It Matters For What’s Next
This is where Toyota seems poised to deliver. It’s already the world’s leader in hybrid tech, and if it’s really getting serious about offering good EV options too, it’s in a good position. Granted, Toyota’s hardly got this on lock. Only time will tell if its new EVs are as competitive as ones from, say, Hyundai Motor Group, which may lack Toyota’s giant scale but has an electric head start that’s paying dividends. Toyota also still has the same headaches in China as any other car company. And nobody at the Kenshiki Forum minced words about the uncertainty around tariffs in America or the European Union’s shifting emissions targets. Everything is weird right now, and nobody can fully predict the future.
But there was another undercurrent to my various conversations at the Kenshiki Forum: As more EVs arrive, they won’t always seem special. More and more, electric cars are just becoming cars—an option people are choosing because it suits their needs and preferences better than others. It’s why Toyota is moving away from its baffling, algebraic naming conventions to lean on familiar names like, theoretically, Land Cruiser or Tacoma or Corolla.
“BEVs will become an ever-more accepted part of life,” Nakata said. It’s good to hear that from the automaker that still, in many ways, sets the paradigm for much of the rest of the industry. This isn’t some moonshot startup or a company whose valuation rides on decade-old promises; it’s Toyota, the top-selling car company in the world and one of the most profitable. It’s the target that so many other traditional automakers are trying to beat, even now. If it’s finally taking EVs seriously, it’s a message to everyone else to do the same.
