Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, addressed the company’s U.S. dealers at an annual conference in Las Vegas and his vision for the automaker came through loud and clear: he intends to run a company that dominates the electric-drive segment. In this case, domination includes adding a host of cutting-edge technology vehicles to the company’s already-green model lineup. Toyoda talked about the company’s recent struggles, full of recalls and reliability concerns, but he also spoke of a promising future, one made brighter by the introduction of new electric-drive models. Toyoda told conference-goers that the automaker:
Will expand its lineup to include more hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery-electric cars and fuel cell vehicles. We are determined to be the leader in this area.
For a company that arguably leads the industry in advanced technology vehicles, envisioning Toyota with more electrified vehicles and perhaps a couple of fuel cell models is certainly not a stretch, but visions of more best-selling Toyota hybrids hitting the streets should be cause for concern among some of the automaker’s closest competitors.
