Toyota To Invest USD13 Bil in AI, Hydrogen, Battery-Powered EVs, and Software

According to Nikkei Asia, car manufacturing giant Toyota will be investing USD13 billion in AI, hydrogen technology, battery-powered EVs, and software.

This comes as the company recorded a net profit of 4.9 trillion yen ($31.8 billion) for the financial year ended March, double that of the previous 12 months, helped by a weak yen and accelerating demand for hybrid vehicles.

Despite the investment into EVs, Chief Financial Officer of Toyota, Yoichi Miyazaki said that Toyota will “try not to get involved” in the price war as the current market has become “oversupplied” with cheap battery EVs.

Though the mention of Toyota investing in EVs are grabbing headlines, the truth is more layered than that.

Toyota Motor President Koji Sato said the company will maintain what it calls a “multipathway” solution, aiming to offer a range of eco-friendly vehicles, not just EVs.

That said, it also recently announced plans to invest $1.4 billion to start making EVs at a U.S. factory in 2026.

While EV evangelist will have you believe the only way to a greener (read: lucrative) future is through battery-powered vehicles, Toyota realise that there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

In America, the ever-popular Camry has gone exclusively hybrid and Thailand is now its second home for its hydrogen technology push.

Now if only more car manufacturers stuck to their guns and stuck to what they know and not rush into the hype of EVs maybe we’d have a more holistic solution to the impending energy crisis.