Toyota Europe’s manufacturing chief sees disruption as the ‘new normal’ for automakers

He pointed out that emissions from logistics are actually greater than what Toyota emits from production plants.

“We can reduce the volume of transport needed, by reducing the size of packaging and optimizing routes,” he added. “

There is still a lot of road transport in the delivery of parts and vehicles, but we are starting trials on fuel cell trucks. There are a lot of things to overcome, but we are on the right track.”

As for the vehicles themselves, Toyota’s strategy to achieve carbon neutrality is based on a multi-technology approach including fully electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells and hybrids.

“In our opinion, one size does not fit all – we are a multi-powertrain company,” he said. “We see the end point is the same, but the transition is going to be multi-technology.”

On hydrogen, Cooke called it a “credible solution” for passenger cars today, but more infrastructure and other tools will be needed to bring it to scale.

He sees more heavy industry solutions to help hydrogen, from rail and truck to marine and replacement of diesel generators.

“Fuel cells offer many opportunities – we have a team that produces fuel cells in Belgium,” he said.

“I don’t even see by 2030 hydrogen passenger cars being a high volume business, we see it supporting other industries that need decarbonization. Hydrogen is one of the key technologies to decarbonize the society.”

Using the Toyota production system – the heart of how the company does business – as a starting point, Cooke said when he looked at innovation and where it came from, it flowed from people in the company. ‘company.

“We’re not just saying we pay people to work, we pay people to think,” he said. “We all invest in new technologies, but how can we continuously engage all of our team members to improve their work? They know better than anyone what works well.”

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