Green investors have criticized the world’s largest automaker by sales for slowing its product lineup for all-electric battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
But the company says hybrids make more sense in markets where the infrastructure isn’t ready for BEVs and needs to offer a variety of choices.
A full hybrid can be driven for periods on electricity, while mild hybrid technology only supplements the combustion engine to help reduce emissions. However, mild hybrids have smaller batteries and cost much less.
Toyota and its partner Suzuki Motor Corp plan to build hybrid vehicles in India to sell in the domestic market and export to markets like Africa, which they say are best suited for the technology. The hybrid push also comes amid an aggressive push for electric vehicles by domestic rivals Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra
India wants carmakers to build more electric models, but the uptake for such vehicles has been slow, and only Tata builds them locally.