The stampede towards all-out electrification gathered pace around 2015 and the perceived wisdom was that it would be at the full expense of internal combustion. At that time, the industry had been tinkering with EVs from the late 1990s, and the idea had gradually become more commercially visible through the likes of Tesla, Nissan, and GM.

 

The sky really started to fall for ICE during the 2010s, however, with the conversation quickly shifting from whether automakers should electrify to how quickly they could afford to go all electric. However, against that backdrop, some industry luminaries weren't so sure and Akio Toyoda, particularly, was an awkward voice in the room. The Toyota chairman insisted that the industry needed more than one answer and while he wasn’t anti-EV per se, he was averse to betting too much capital on one demand curve while the concept was still in its relative infancy.