POWER/GRID
This year’s biggest EV influencers (who aren’t Musk, Rimac or Thunberg)
WORDS PAUL HORRELL
AKIO TOYODA
President, Toyota
If there’s one photo from the past year that sums up our shifting age, it might just be the one of Akio Toyoda standing, arms outstretched, in front of 16 electric vehicle design models, all destined for production. A baby sports coupe, a supercar, vans, multiple saloons, hatches, crossovers and off-roaders for Toyota and Lexus. Sixteen. He called it his “showroom for the future”. Japanese companies are usually secretive about their new car plans.
In May 2021 he had announced a target of 2.5 million electric and fuel cell Toyotas and Lexuses sold per year by 2030. Seven months later, after the COP26 conference and various nations’ commitments, that target became 3.5 million. Toyoda doesn’t only make plans like any Japanese manager, he alters them in the face of new circumstances.