F̵r̵a̵c̵t̵u̵r̵e̵d̵ ̵F̵u̵t̵u̵r̵e̵s̵— 🚘 Toyota leader Akio Toyoda at Hero City […]

F̵r̵a̵c̵t̵u̵r̵e̵d̵ ̵F̵u̵t̵u̵r̵e̵s̵— 🚘
Toyota leader Akio Toyoda at Hero City in 2014, before our lively dinner with Elon Musk. He returned to Japan to abruptly cancel their EV vehicle in favor of hydrogen fuel cells.

And today, as Japan considers an EV mandate, Akio warns that “the current business model of the car industry is going to collapse.” — https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyotas-chief-says-electric-vehicles-are-overhyped-11608196665

• 2014 news: “Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, discusses why Toyota is abandoning the pure electric Toyota RAV4 EV in favor of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. According to Lentz, BEVs are only viable in “a select way, in short-range vehicles that take you that extra mile, from the office to the train, or home to the train, as well as being used on large campuses.” As for Toyota’ investment in Tesla, Lentz sarcastically says “It’s done ok.” Perhaps the biggest understatement ever” — https://insideevs.com/news/321791/toyota-explains-why-rav4-ev-is-dead-declares-hydrogen-is-the-future/

Our 2014 dinner was at the Village Pub, with Akio, Elon, me and J.B., CTO and co-founder of Tesla. It was a bit surreal. Akio proudly showed us a snazzy video of the “iCar” — a connected vehicle of the future. It reminded me of the “Knowledge Navigator” video that Sculley produced at Apple. Both leaders were unable to convey a future product vision of their own. Akio just played the video a second time. We were mystified.
He also said how envious he was of Elon and his ability to effect change at Tesla. At Toyota, by contrast, “every meeting I attend has 100 people in it, and the people most knowledgeable about the subject matter will not speak.” I am not sure why he shared that with us.