. . .well, maybe it won’t outright win the race, but its approach to technology sure seems like the right one. . . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

You may recall that not long ago Toyota was being chastised for being insufficiently aggressive in pursuing an electric vehicle strategy. It seemed as though Toyota would be like a vehicle abandoned by the side of the road, striped and desolate.

It isn’t that it wasn’t putting EVs on the road. Just not enough of them. And not just with the sort of capability that would be expected of Toyota. So went part of the criticism.

Akio Toyoda was considered backward for taking an approach that would have powertrains suited to varying needs, whether it is a straight ICE, a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, a battery electric, or even—in exceedingly limited quantities at least—a hydrogen electric setup.

Turns out that this steady approach is actually one that is winning in the market.

According to Kelley Blue Book in Q1 2025 there were 296,227 EVs sold in the U.S.

That’s from 25 brands.

In Q1 2025 Toyota (including Lexus) sold 110,225 hybrids. That’s about 37% of the number of all the EVs sold by all of those other companies. And while those brands are struggling to make money from EVs, presumably Toyota isn’t putting hybrids under the hoods of a mulitude of vehicles because it isn’t making money selling them.

So doing what it is doing powertrain-wise is probably not a bad decision on Toyoda’s part.

Another area where Toyota wasn’t as visibly bullish as some other companies is in autonomous driving.

No real analogue to Cruise Automation or Argo AI.

There was (and is) the Toyota Research Institute, but they were doing other things, too.

And now there is no Cruise Automation. No Argo AI.

And this week Waymo and Toyota announced they’ve “reached a preliminary agreement to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies.”

Waymo is clearly the leader in the U.S. in autonomous driving tech, with the company offering rides in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.

Also this week May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle tech company, and Uber announced a partnership that will have autonomous vehicles available for ride-hail in Arlington, Texas, by the end of the year.

The vehicles for the Arlington program?

Toyota Sienna minivans. (They’re hybrids.)

Toyota is a strategic partner in May Mobility.