Retired Toyota 86 / Supra's star engineer says Toyota went too far into hydrogen, still doesn't believe in EV-only future though

If you love cars, you will certainly know the name Tetsuya Tada. He is the reason that we still have the Toyota GR86, and why the Supra nameplate is still alive – thus laying the foundation for the establishment of Toyota Gazoo Racing and the GR badge.

The former chief engineer of Toyota sports cars has since retired and is now living a quiet life in the mountains of Japan’s Mie prefecture, keeping himself occupied with renewable energy projects.

But a hard charging person like Tetsuya Tada love cars too much to retire quietly.

Given that the car industry is now in a once-in-a-century revolution, and the cars he developed are now regarded as among the last generation of analogue cars, he must have a lot to say about electric vehicles.

The Tokyo Shimbun caught up with Tada-san last week and thanks to Google Translate, it is possible to have some idea about what Toyota’s retired star engineer has to say about the future of Toyota and more importantly, the future of cars.

Echoing his former boss and current Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda’s multi-pathway to carbon neutrality strategy, Tada-san does not believe that the whole world will march towards EVs.

Also read: To continue his teacher's dream, Akio Toyoda is racing in Thailand to show 5 solutions are better than 1

He also believed that in terms of technology, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) hold “two to three steps” more potential than battery EVs (BEVs). However, limited infrastructure to support FCEVs will continue to hold FCEVs back in the near-term.

Tada-san doesn’t believe in a BEV-only future that many are predicting, especially in lesser developed parts of the world. He believes that the internal combustion engine (ICE) is going to stay relevant for quite a while more.

However, this is where Tada’s opinion start to diverge from his former employer’s.

While he believes that FCEV technology holds great potential in the longer term, he also feels that Toyota has gone too deep into hydrogens, and that the company doesn’t have a lot of friends in this journey, thus making it a target for EV fanatics.

Toyota has gone so far ahead into FCEVs that it is now at odds with the market situation in USA, Europe, and China – all key regions for automotive sales, all betting on BEVs more than FCEVs.

Tada says the governments in these regions are putting their weight behind BEVs, investing into charging infrastructure etc, but Toyota’s direction is driving the company further away from these markets.

Tada recognizes that Toyota’s multi-pathway to carbon neutrality philosophy – that having more carbon-neutral powertrain technology options is always better than betting everything on BEVs – is a sound one, but in reality this is extremely difficult to do, even for a company as big and rich as Toyota.

“It makes sense to have a variety of options. However, no matter how big Toyota is, it is unreasonable to continue to devote all its energy into research and development in all directions. It is the manager's job to decide where to put the company's resources,” said Tada.

Tada also admitted that when he was chief engineer, he didn’t take BEVs too seriously because he was confident that with Toyota’s expertise in hybrids, whose EV drive technology form the basis of any BEV, will allow the company to catch up with BEV startups anytime it wants.

“But in reality, the technology in hybrids and BEVs is completely different. This is an issue that the new system (new management team under President Koji Sato) should address,” he explained.

He also pointed out the Toyota bZ4X’s loose hub bolt recall took an unusually long time (by Toyota’s typically high standards of quality) to solve.

“EVs have tremendous amount of low-speed torque, so the first thing engineers need to pay close attention to is around the axle. Still, a problem has occurred in an area that should have received the most attention during the development process. What's worse is that it took an awfully long time for a solution to be found. This would not have happened in the old Toyota.

“Toyota has a culture in which chief engineers are responsible for quality. We were raised in a culture where if something happened, quality issues would be dealt with first and foremost, no matter how big or small. But to be honest, I wonder what's going on in the company that it took them so long to come out with a solution,” said Tada.

Separately, current President Koji Sato’s new line-up of Vice-Presidents suggests that he will be pursuing the BEV agenda with even greater tenacity.

"We will accelerate the development of BEVs with a different approach than before," said Sato in February. A new dedicated EV-only platform is expected to debut in a Lexus model in 2026.