The United States, including Georgia, isn’t ready to fully adopt electric vehicles (EVs), and hybrids continue to be a better alternative for the near term, a high-ranking Toyota executive told the Wall Street Journal.
High EV prices and a small 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 Journal reported in its news story.
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Japanese automaker Toyota overtook General Motors in 2021 as the top car seller in the U.S., breaking the American manufacturer’s 90-year streak, Reuters reported.
Toyota sold 2.332 million vehicles, while GM sold 2.218 million, automakers said Tuesday, Reuters reported. GM’s dethroning marks the first time the Detroit company did not secure the most sales since it overtook Ford in 1931.
GM‘s sales were down 13% from the year before, in part due to the computer chip shortage that forced manufacturers to focus on their most popular models, Reuters reported. In contrast, Toyota was up 10% and is believed to have weathered the shortage better than others in the industry.
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A major nickel mine in a Philippines rainforest has continued to expand, mowing down acres of trees as global demand for minerals essential for electric vehicle manufacturing surges.
The Rio Tuba mine in the region of Palawan supplies an important mineral for electric vehicle batteries in Tesla and Toyota cars, but the mine is nearing an expansion that would cause it to grow from four square miles to 14 square miles, according to an NBC News investigation. The growth of the mine would cause massive deforestation of the land which environmentalists warn could destroy the area’s ecosystem.
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Toyota announced Thursday that it will stop donating to Republicans who objected to certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in January.
The company said in a statement, first reported by The Detroit News, that its previous donations to Republican election objectors “troubled some stakeholders.”
The statement comes two weeks after an Axios report revealed that the Japanese automaker’s corporate PAC donated more to Republicans who contested Biden’s victory than any other company, doing so by a significant amount. It donated $55,000 to 37 objectors, over $25,000 more than any other corporation.
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