Car companies are facing tough rules on emissions. Many are using electric and hybrid engines to cut down on pollution. Toyota thinks people won't buy many electric cars in the next few years. So, they're focusing on hybrids instead.
Toyota's already got hybrid versions of most of its cars, except for some sports models. They'll decide which cars to make hybrid-only when it's time to redesign them.
Hybrids are Toyota's strong point. They sell a lot of them and expect hybrids to make up more than half of all their sales next year. They want to keep their top spot in the hybrid market, especially now that electric car sales are slowing down. People aren't buying as many electric cars because they're expensive and charging can be a hassle.
Some of these new hybrids will probably be plug-in models with bigger batteries. Toyota's even thinking about getting rid of the gas engine in the RAV4 for North America when they redesign it for 2026. But they haven't made a final decision yet.
David Christ, who's in charge of sales and marketing for Toyota North America, said:
"Going forward, we plan to evaluate, carline by carline, whether going all-hybrid makes sense."
He also mentioned that Toyota makes hybrids because customers want them, and they think hybrid sales will keep going up.
Selling lots of hybrids has helped Toyota make record profits over the past year. They're using a big chunk of that money to work on electric vehicles too.
Toyota's focus on hybrids looks like a smart move right now. It seems like they'll keep pushing partial electrification for a while yet.
Source: Reuters