Great Lakes Wire

The United States isn't ready for a full shift to electric vehicles (EVs) despite a push by automakers, and hybrids probably are a better go-to for now, a high-ranking Toyota executive said in The Wall Street Journal last week.

High EV prices and a shortage of charging infrastructure are holding the market back, Jack Hollis, executive vice president of sales at Toyota Motor North America, said during "a virtual event with journalists," the D.C.-based newspaper said in its  Aug. 18 article.

Jack Hollis, executive vice president of sales at Toyota Motor North America | pressroom.toyota.com/

"As much as you want to talk about EVs, the marketplace isn't mature enough," Hollis said.

Hollis also referred to increasingly more expensive raw materials, including lithium, cobalt and other crucial battery inputs that EVs require, which necessarily will lead to even more expensive all-electric vehicles. The current market for EVs is attracting only early adopters to embrace battery-powered vehicles.

"I don't think the market is ready for what the rhetoric is saying," Hollis said in The Wall Street Journal.

Hollis' observations followed Toyota's introduction last year of three EVs for the U.S. market and the automaker's announcement that Toyota and Lexus models worldwide "will have an electrified option" by 2025.

Hollis isn't alone in his observations about why the current EV market is so weak. Consumer Reports said last month that consumers certainly are interested in EVs but that most — six in 10 surveyed — are holding back because of too-few charging stations and other factors. The Consumer Reports survey, based on 8,027 interviews, also found that more than half cited EVs' limited travel range on a single charge as a reason why they decided against buying one.

Current electric vehicles can travel an average of 250 miles on a single charge, University of California Davis EV Research Center said.

Michigan has 8,626 EV charging stations, according to PlugShare.

Consumer Reports also found that 63% of those surveyed said they would not purchase an electric vehicle today, with more than half of that number — 58% — indicating high EV prices are holding them back.

The Wall Street Journal reported in its news story that Toyota, like other automakers, has thrown its support behind EV technology. Toyota announced last year it would be producing 3.5 million electric vehicles per year by 2030.

Hollis said he believes EV adoption will take off in the future, which is why Toyota needs to be prepared for the transition, but that hybrid models are a better near-term solution for buyers.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden this month, provides a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of new all-electric vehicles. However, the tax credit comes with "price and income restrictions" that many will find onerous, Seth Goldstein, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in a CNBC news story earlier this month.