Do not expect to see this on TikTok.
Toyota president Akio Toyoda said he was overjoyed when his company outsold General Motors in the U.S. last year.
I actually did a little 'happy dance' in my office, Toyoda said. Thankfully, nobody saw it! Toyoda made a statement to reporters at the company's dealer meeting in Las Vegas last week.
Toyota delivered 2.332 million cars to GM's 2.218 million during the year to dethrone its rival for the first time since 1931. It was the world's top-selling automaker for the year.
Through the first quarter of 2022, Toyota held onto the top spot in the U.S., but General Motors was able to beat it in the second quarter to pull ahead for the first half of the year. By 2035, GM will have an all-electric light duty vehicle lineup in the U.S.
Toyoda said that several other states, including New York, are expected to adopt a California electric car mandate, which would ban the sale of cars and light trucks that are not fully electric or plug-in hybrid by 2035.
He opposed Toyota's roll out of all-electric models in favor of a mix of vehicles that include traditional hybrids and non-hybrids.
Playing to win means playing with all the cards in the deck, not just a select few, he said in a video shown to dealers.
That's our strategy, and we're sticking to it. Toyota dealer Steve Gates, who owns several outlets, agreed that you can't make a living by selling EVs. Just like the fully autonomous cars we were all supposed to be driving, battery electric vehicles are going to take longer to become mainstream than the media would like us to believe, Toyoda said.