One of the world’s leading experts in the electrification of cars says that hybrid technology has already reached price parity with diesel, and as the cost of diesel cars goes up due to tougher regulations, the widening cost gap should hasten the demise of diesel even more. Due to their cost, the share of pure battery-electric vehicles should not go above an impressive 30% for the next 10 or 20 years, the expert told me.
Satoshi Ogiso has been a longtime development leader of Toyota’s Prius family, he also was instrumental in Toyota’s fuel cell development program, which went commercial in late 2015 with the Toyota Mirai. I met Ogiso last week for an exclusive interview in his new office at the headquarters of Toyota Group brake manufacturer Advics Co. in Kariya, near Nagoya, Japan. Ogiso has been the President of Advics for a little more than a year. Before at Toyota, Ogiso was regarded as one of the company’s brightest stars. He took over the Prius program from Takeshi Uchiyamada. If Uchiyamada was the father of the Prius, then Ogiso was the program’s fast breeder. It was under Ogiso when the Prius morphed from a science experiment into one of Toyota’s most important cars.