Our Take, with Doug Sheridan
EVs Report Card: “Now climate activists are questioning how environmentally friendly these vehicles are, especially as they rise in popularity.”
The WSJ writes, traditional hybrid vehicles combine a gasoline engine with battery power and generally get far better gas mileage than the cars and trucks Americans have typically driven. Now climate activists are questioning how environmentally friendly these vehicles are, especially as they rise in popularity.
Hybrid makers led by Toyota Motor argue the vehicles’ popularity is something to celebrate and “an important solution toward achieving carbon neutrality.” To be sure, the market’s shift to hybrids has brought a windfall for Toyota and prompted automakers including Ford Motor and General Motors to lean more heavily into gasoline-electric technology.
Those on the other side of the debate, including activists and some regulators, say hybrids aren’t good enough if the world hopes to meet ambitious carbon-reduction targets. Putting more gasoline-powered cars on roads and saying that’s good for the climate is just misleading,” said Aaron Regunberg, of consumer group Public Citizen.
In Dec, Public Citizen filed a complaint with the FTC saying Toyota’s branding of its hybrids as “hybrid EVs” as well as marketing phrases such as “electrified mobility” and “beyond zero” mislead consumers. Toyota North America said its marketing uses terms that are standard in the automotive industry.
The marketing debate is a skirmish ahead of an EPA decision, due this spring, on proposed restrictions. As proposed last year, the new standards would require average fleet emissions to be cut by 56% by 2032 compared with 2026 model-year requirements.
A group representing carmakers including Toyota, Honda Motor and Ford Motor Company is lobbying against the rules. Automakers forecast they would have to sell 67% EVs by 2032 to meet the standards. The companies say the rules would force them to pivot away too quickly from hybrids and other gasoline-powered cars and result in consumers purchasing more costly vehicles.
The EPA’s “draconian EV mandate” would actually be bad for the environment, said Stephen Ciccone, Toyota Motor Corporation’s North America head of government affairs, in a message to US dealers. “We can transition to EVs, but the speed of the transition has to be more realistic,” Ciccone wrote. Despite “a lot of hits from environmental activists” and others, Ciccone wrote, “we have not—and we will not—back down.”
Our Take: Unwilling to take American drivers' "no" for an answer, climate activists now want to take the purchase decision out of the hands of consumers altogether. This is what happens when progressive zealots get ahold of things—full control becomes the objective, bad-faith cram-downs the tactics... the public be damned
It was never about the environment. Eliminating our mobility is the long game.