Japan Plans To End New ICE Vehicle Sales By Mid-2030s

• Hybrid or electrified petrol-powered vehicles will still be allowed beyond 2035.

• Japan will join other countries and states such as California with the phasing out of ICE vehicles.

• This is opposition to Toyota’s President’s thoughts this move may collapse the industry.

Just over a week ago, we reported that Toyota President Akio Toyoda was concerned that pushing for a ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles could cause a collapse of the industry. Despite sharing this on behalf of Japanese automakers as the head of a local industry association, Japan will go ahead with the ban.

Toyota’s Toyoda Slams EV Mandates

Of Toyoda’s many apprehensions is about the plan is the energy grid’s potential inability to support a massive increase in demand. The Wall Street Journal reports that, as part of the Japanese government’s announcement, they intend to add as much as 45 gigawatts of off-shore wind-power capacity by 2040.

There are many motivations behind this plan, one of which is there is fear that Japan is falling behind Europe and China on sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Included in these concerns are that Toyota and Honda are not as committed or ready to launch fully-electric vehicles in Japan quite yet. In contrast, Nissan has announced its intentions with their upcoming Ariya electric SUV.

Many industry experts have said that incentives are proving to not be effective enough to change the industry’s ways. Hard deadlines, on the other hand, are.