We aren't playing with Toy(ota)s

Welcome back to The Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that’s like an angel on your shoulder every time you read this newsletter. Welcome to good decision town, population: you.

Today we’re diving into a plot twist that’s hit The Strawman in the feels. See, the Toyota Prius has been a constant in The Strawman’s life since he was just a bundle of hay. Turns out, behind this mask of green responsibility, Toyota’s been doing some sneaky shit.

Let’s get into it.

Multiple Priuses - some Prii, if you will

That’s not a joke - the plural of Prius is Prii (technically in Latin it’s Priora but another car company had trademarked that so here we are 🤷)

Toyota started so strong. The Prius, first launched in 1997 was the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.

The idea is simple - rather than just having a big beefy internal combustion engine (how all old school cars are run), you stick an electric motor in the car alongside which is powered by a good ol’ battery. Through regenerative braking (using the energy that would have been wasted in slowing a car down) and some energy from the normal engine, you charge this battery.

Bada bing bada boom, you have a car with incredibly high efficiency - and the dream of Uber drivers everywhere. You know what we think about efficiency - anything that reduces the amount of fossil fuels consumed by cars is a win in The Strawman’s books.

Each time the Strawboy got into his car as a wee child, he did so knowing that his family was doing their little bit to save the planet. Little did he know…

It really be your own…

From Toyota’s website: “…[Their sustainability policy] includes our pledge to support the reduction to zero CO2 emissions at every stage of a vehicle’s lifecycle, to cut waste, reduce energy consumption and the amount of natural resources we use and to protect and enhance biodiversity in order to operate in harmony with nature.”

Wow. Cutting through the corporate bs, this sounds lovely. Fantastic one might say. So why is The Strawman calling them out?

Well:

• Toyota has consistently lobbied against the adoption of all-electric cars (probably because this means fewer sales for their Prii)

• They lobbied Japan’s government into removing a reference to a zero-emission vehicles target at last year’s G7 summit

• In 2021, they were ranked the 3rd worst company in the world for holding back progress on climate action. The only companies worse? Exxon and Chevron.

BRB - selling our Toyota Prius

See you tomorrow,

The Strawman