Toyota: Negative On Batteries Because It Has More Experience Than Any Other Maker

When it comes to zero-emission vehicles, Toyota has placed its flag firmly on the side of hydrogen fuel cells.

The company is now reviewing requests from potential buyers and lessees of its 2016 Mirai fuel cell car, which is expected to hit California roads before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, in attack ads and multiple public comments by officials, the Japanese carmaker has consistently criticized battery-electric cars.

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Now, one executive explains why Toyota is so negative: He claims it's Toyota's long experience with high-voltage automotive batteries that makes it so skeptical of battery-powered vehicles.

Two decades of development and production experience with batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles has convinced Toyota that they pose a fundamental "physics problem," said Craig Scott--the carmaker's national alternative-fuel vehicle manager--in a recent interview with Forbes.

"Nobody makes more batteries than Toyota," Scott said. "We've been doing batteries longer than anyone in the automotive business."

Toyota wasn't the first manufacturer to use some form of electric propulsion in production cars, but it's likely built more cars with high-voltage batteries than any other single maker.

The company has sold more than 7 million hybrids since the first-generation Prius went on sale in Japan in 1997.

Note that the vast majority of electrified Toyota vehicles use nickel-metal hydride battery packs, not the lithium-ion chemistry found in production electric cars.

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