When it comes to electric vehicles, it can be extremely hard to figure Toyota out. Six months ago, it was putting on a huge show of force in Japan to demonstrate how it was racing to "catch up" to rivals like Tesla and China's electric automakers; a few months after that, it was spiking the football over hybrid sales, still touting hydrogen and openly projecting EVs will only make up 30% of the market someday. (Not to mention all those years of lobbying against EVs.)
In my mind, what matters is what's happening behind the scenes and what Toyota will—hopefully—take to market eventually, starting with the 2026 model year for Lexus. Because I don't think Toyota is taking this lying down as much as people think, and the buyout of a Panasonic joint venture helps us understand why.
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