While an EV have no emissions, its production process makes it 'dirtier' than an HEV.
When you decide to buy South Africa’s best-selling SUV, the Toyota Corolla Cross HEV (hybrid electric vehicle) it is not only a great financial decision, but an ethical one too.
You can call Toyota a conservative company if you want. And you would be 100% right! Under their chairman, Akio Toyoda, Toyota have maintained a very measured and pragmatic approach when it comes to electrifying their vehicles. They have not fell into this trap that many other car manufacturers have in trying to turn their companies into battery electric only facilities.
Toyota’s boss man has for long said that going all-in on electric cars (EVs) is wrong. Forcing everyone to buy EVs isn’t the way forward. He is adamant that that going all-in on EVs would have massive repercussions across the automotive industry. Not only because of the millions of jobs that could be lost if the combustion engine is phased out too quickly, but the car companies themselves could be heading down a path to bankruptcy. Just ask Jaguar how things are working out for them?
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EVs ‘dirtier’ than hybrids
Toyoda maintains that EVs are still much “dirtier” than hybrids and do more harm to the planet than we are being led to believe. Toyota have sold around 27 million hybrids since launching the first-generation Prius in 1997. According to them, those hybrids have had the same carbon footprint as nine million EVs adding battery and vehicle production into the equation. If Toyota were to have produced nine million EVs in Japan, it would have increased the carbon emissions, not reduced them.
EVs are responsible for far fewer overall emissions, but the long-term reality is that producing EVs and their batteries creates more carbon emissions than building internal combustion cars over their life cycles.
Toyota CEO, Koji Sato was recently quoted as saying: “A car is not a car if it’s not fun.” This means in the future we can possibly expect the Supra to continue, while the Celica and MR2 nameplates could become household names gain.
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Toyota Corolla Cross HEV pricing
- 1.8 HEV XS – R494 400
- 1.8 HEV XR – R545 200
- 1.8 HEV GR-S – R561 700
*Pricing includes six-services/90 000km service plan and three-year/100 000 km warranty on vehicle and eight-year warranty on the hybrid battery.
