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Combined with other EVs the company unveiled this week, it looks like the world’s largest automaker is finally getting its electric act together.
If you believe solely in the power of the stock market, then the world’s most important automaker is Tesla, whose soaring stock valuation reflects faith in Elon Musk and his AI dreams as much as it does the company’s EV sales. But if you care about selling cars, the real most important company is Toyota. The world’s largest automaker delivers more than 10 million vehicles per year, twice the sales of even a giant like General Motors.
The Japanese leader has a complicated relationship with sustainability. Toyota became the world’s signature crunchy car-maker with the introduction and success of the hybrid Prius. It still sells the Mirai, one of the only hydrogen fuel cell cars on the market. But Toyota has also always been reticent about EVs, standing on the sidelines while other legacy automakers rushed in with electric offerings, with its leadership expressing consistent skepticism about the advent of the EV era.
That is seemingly about to change, as the automaker appears ready to stop dragging its feel on full battery power. Toyota teased a few nuggets of important EV news over the past few weeks, And although its nine planned EVs by the end of 2026 are meant for Europe, this is a crucial window into the big brand’s plans.
First: Its initial foray into the pure EV space, the bZ4x, is getting an overdue upgrade. The awkwardly named crossover has been one of the more disappointing electric vehicles on the market, with just 214 horsepower. Its range, which starts around 220 miles and only goes as high as 250, isn’t up to the standards of today’s best EVs. The new version, however, pumps up the output to 343 horses, while also extending maximum range for the American version to around 280 miles. It finally adds simple, obvious features such as integrating charging stops into the in-car navigation system, making Toyota’s EV far more competitive with the state of the art.
The company has also promised, at long last, a deeper lineup of fully electric vehicles set to debut this year and in 2026. First is the C-HR+, a fully electrified version of the quirky little Toyota crossover that was briefly on sale in the United States until it was discontinued in 2022. (I test-drove one once and it was fun, if awkwardly proportioned.) C-HR+ would be the entry-level Toyota EV, with specs similar to the bZ4x but in a smaller and slightly less expensive package.
Then there’s the Urban Cruiser, which fits between the C-HR+ and bZ4x in terms of size. This EV is the spiritual successor to the Scion xD that was sold in America back before Toyota discontinued the Scion sub-brand here. The Urban Cruiser is set to go on sale only in Europe, at least for now. Specs like its driving range are not yet known.
The rest of Toyota’s EV plans lie in the shadows. In addition to the three models it revealed fully, the company also presented a slide that teased six more, depicted only by a faint outline. That’s standard practice in the car world, meant to drum up intrigue about cars yet to come. Tesla, for example, fed years of rumors about a small, entry-level EV that (to date, at least) never showed up by showing it under a sheet in various media presentations.
What’s noticeable about Toyota’s tease? There’s a truck.
Toyota has toyed with making an electric pickup before. In 2023, its engineers built a prototype EV version of the small Hilux truck Toyota sells in huge numbers around the world. That one-off became a real production EV, though only in Thailand and packs just 124 miles of range.
The design Toyota just teased looks like an extended-cab American pickup truck, not the single-row small truck is sells elsewhere. This leads to obvious speculation that Toyota might finally be electrifying the Tacoma and aiming to compete with the likes of Ford, Chevy, Rivian, and Ram, a move that would be a jolt to the sluggish market for EV trucks.
Although Toyota is late to the game — and its participation earlier would have done a lot to juice EV adoption — these moves are crucial. For one thing, the timing is interesting. The giant company’s much-awaited dive into EVs just as the United States government is putting the squeeze on them is further proof that the global market for electric vehicles isn’t going anywhere. We already know that enthusiasm for EVs is hotter in other countries, and Toyota sells cars everywhere.
And who knows? With Elon Musk flailing in the political winds, throwing away Tesla’s huge lead in various EV markets for no particular reason, maybe Toyota finally saw its moment to strike.
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On Democrats’ big decision, peak oil, and Rep. Grijalva
Current conditions: A severe storm system this weekend threatens 30 states with extreme weather ranging from fires to blizzards to tornadoes • Schools are closed in Florence after heavy rain triggered floods in Italy • The La Niña weather pattern looks to be on its way out.
Members of Congress have until midnight to pass a stopgap bill to fund the federal government, or else face a government shutdown. The House approved the GOP legislation earlier this week, but the Senate has yet to do so (though Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’d vote for it), and Democrats have concerns about its contents. The bill would keep funding the government at current levels until September, though it would also increase defense spending by $6 billion and decrease non-defense spending by $13 billion. There are a few items in the bill that are related to climate change and energy, including:
The bill does not boost the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, nor does it include disaster relief for California. But it does raise federal wildland firefighters’ pay.
In a speech announcing he would support the measure, Schumer said “a shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state, and the country.”
Five farms and three environmental nonprofits are suing the Trump administration for unlawfully freezing Department of Agriculture grants awarded through the Inflation Reduction Act. The grants for farmers were to go toward energy efficiency upgrades like solar panel installations. The farmers say they’ve already started investing in these upgrades with the expectation that the government would pitch in, and now they have bills to pay. The nonprofits were awarded Forest Service grants to support tree equity in historically underserved communities. “The Trump administration’s unlawful actions are hurting communities across the country,” said Hana Vizcarra, senior attorney at Earthjustice, which filed the lawsuit. “This is not government efficiency. It is thoughtless waste that inflicts unwarranted financial pain on small farmers and organizations trying to improve their communities.”
Insurers are worried that the Trump administration’s cuts to key science programs across the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Geological Survey will make it harder for them to forecast natural disaster risks like hurricanes, according to the Financial Times. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange has reported, NOAA collects more than 20 terabytes of environmental data from Earth and space daily, and through its paleoclimatology arm, it has reconstructed climate data going back 100 million years. Layoffs at NOAA are hampering those data collection efforts, introducing gaps and inconsistencies. Flawed and incomplete data results in degraded and imprecise forecasts. In an era of extreme weather, the difference of a few miles or degrees can be a matter of life or death. While Congress mandates that certain data be collected, it does not mandate that data be made public, creating the risk that the administration could cut off access. The FT reports that lobbyists from the insurance industry have been urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick not to do that.
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The energy industry’s annual CERAWeek conference comes to a close today. Most of the biggest headline-making news (Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying climate change is a “trade off” for modernization; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum pushing to reopen coal plants; tech giants pledging to support a target of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050) happened in the event’s first two days. But one theme bubbling in the background is that peak oil production isn’t far off. Some oil and gas executives, including Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub and ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance, projected that U.S. oil production will peak before 2030. “We don’t have many oil plays left in this country,” shale pioneer Scott Sheffield toldBloomberg. “The inventory is getting worse, naturally, because we drill so many wells. You’re fighting the inventory deterioration at the same time you’re trying to improve efficiencies.”
U.S. oil producers will meet with President Trump next week to talk trade, tariffs, and LNG.
Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, died yesterday at the age of 77 from cancer complications. Grijalva served 12 terms in Congress and was a champion of environmental protection, including as chair of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. “He led the charge for historic investments in climate action, port of entry modernization, permanent funding for land and water conservation programs, access to health care for tribal communities and the uninsured, fairness for immigrant families and Dreamers, student loan forgiveness, stronger protections for farmers and workers exposed to extreme heat, early childhood education expansion, higher standards for tribal consultation, and so much more,” Grijalva’s office said in a statement. He helped write the National Landscape Conservation System Act and the Federal Lands Restoration Act, and advocated for permanently protecting the Grand Canyon. A special election will take place later this year to replace him.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom fell last year by 3.6% to their lowest levels since 1872.
Moss Landing is turning into a growing problem for the energy storage industry.
The Moss Landing battery fire now may be the storage industry’s East Palestine moment – at least in California.
In the weeks since Vistra’s battery plant south of San Francisco caught fire on January 16, at least two lawsuits have been filed against Vistra, PG&E, and battery manufacturer LG Chem by people and business owners claiming damages from the blaze. I have learned at least one more will be filed by individuals who’ve conducted headline-grabbing soil samples that found toxic metals.
Meanwhile, towns and counties up and down the California coastline have banned new battery storage projects and requested more control from the state over permitting and operating them.
At the granular level, circumstances look even more tense. Santa Barbara County this week voted to proactively plan for the potential enactment of legislation before the California state assembly that would let localities be the decider on battery storage, instead of state authorities. The bill is scheduled for its first hearing in the assembly’s utility committee in early April. County officials voted to act essentially like it will become the law of the land, despite testimony from local community services staff noting how unique the Moss Landing event was.
What was especially stark to me: Robert Shaw – CEO of local utility Central Coast Community Energy – spoke before the supervisors and made it clear lots of additional storage would be required for the company to meet its 2030 climate commitments. He explained that storage has to be close to where the energy load is in order to avoid costly transmission lines, telling the board that “in order to operate, they’ve got to add reliability to the grid – but they’ve also got to be affordable.”
Now, today, we’re expecting new regulations arising from California’s battery fire fears: the Public Utilities Commission will vote to adopt proposed recommendations for battery storage siting requirements. This will include requirements for emergency response and action plans after battery fires and new standards for safe operation. A vote to adopt these recommendations is scheduled later this afternoon and advocates in California tell me they anticipate no hiccups.
So why such a profound local revolt? How did California rapidly deploy battery storage only to veer into possibly emboldening local control, which certainly may make residents feel better but would also stall the pace of the energy transition?
I’ve spent the last week looking into it and the simplest explanation is this: Moss Landing still feels like a disaster zone. Residents miles away from where the blaze occurred are suffering mysterious illnesses, like random bloody noses and headaches, and medical issues they suspect is related to the fire, such as a random metallic taste. I’ve seen the pictures of skin that looks burned and heard the voices of people who say they no longer have most of their voice after inhaling airborne substances after the event. Locals are routinely posting online about how they’re extremely disappointed with the government’s response, especially state and federal officials, and at the end of the day, no matter the cause, word of such profound and lasting suffering can spread across the internet like, well, a wildfire.
The industry also clearly believes opposition is growing because of misunderstandings about how Moss Landing was a singular incident – most battery storage sites are outdoors and use battery chemistries that offer less risk of a “thermal runaway” event, which is the term of art used to describe the uncontrolled fire spread that can occur at a battery storage site.
Renewables trade group American Clean Power gathered media last week for a virtual briefing to discuss battery safety, during which the group’s vice president of energy storage Noah Roberts sought to reassure the public and said the organization is “working to ensure that an event like this doesn’t happen in the future and do not anticipate an event like this will happen in the future.”
“This battery storage project was located within a retrofitted power plant from the 1950s and very much represents a global anomaly,” Roberts said, adding that “this incident and its impact is not something we have previously seen.”
None of this is stopping Moss Landing from becoming a galvanizing event. I’ve learned that activists on the ground and their attorneys are receiving a flood of inquiries from individuals fighting battery projects elsewhere in the United States.
“You’re going to feel absolutely like guinea pigs — and, unfortunately, you are because protocols weren’t in place,” environmental activist Erin Brockovich told affected residents at a public virtual town hall I attended late Tuesday night. Brockovich encouraged anyone who believes they were impacted by the battery fire to work publicly and behind the scenes to get the local control legislation in the state assembly passed. “Your input, hundreds and hundreds of you, on this legislation can help change the course for many communities in California in the future, on where [BESS] is built, how far away. Are they not going to be built?”
Knut Johnson, an attorney who is representing victims in one of the lawsuits, told me he believes this story should ultimately go national with seismic ramifications for the storage industry. He also told me he’s “curious to see how the Trump administration responds to this.” Johnson put the webinar on with Brockovich, who, he told me, is acting as a paralegal assisting with the case.
“This was so sudden and unexpected and following several years of magical thinking where they weren’t preparing for this possibility,” he said of the developers and state officials.
And more of the week’s top conflicts around renewable energy.
1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – Welcome to the Vineyard Wind lawsuit 2.0.
2. Carroll County, Maryland – Carroll County commissioners are intervening in the state permitting fight over two relatively small solar projects, in what has become a wider proxy battle between the county and the state over solar on farmland.
3. Barren County, Kentucky – Somehow this large-scale 100-megawatt solar farm proposed by Geenex is having an easier time in Kentucky than in Maryland. Why?
4. Osage County, Oklahoma – A federal judge paused the removal of the Enel wind farm that was ordered last year to be removed over opposition from Native tribes.
5. Albany County, Wyoming – It seems the conservative anti-renewables advocates working against offshore wind are quietly involved in fighting Repsol’s Rail Tie wind project in Wyoming.
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