Toyota Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada rode his pioneering work on the Prius hybrid to the top of the world's biggest car company.
But that doesn't mean he is a zealot when it comes to the growing expectations for electric vehicle technology. The technical barriers to better battery life and performance are real, he said in an interview Monday, and are not on the verge of disappearing.
"We don't have an answer yet. We might not have an answer," Uchiyamada said after an address at the Economic Club of Washington. There will need to be "two breakthroughs to see the age of electric vehicles" — one to increase the distance that cars can drive on a charge and one to reduce that charging time, he told the group.