Kazou Hirai, Craig Scott, Ricardo Reyes.

“If we fundamentally believe at some point in time that we can make a difference in the automotive space, it’s something that we will look at.”

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai says it is possible that his company will team up with a traditional carmaker and enter the automotive industry. According to Hirai, the advent of electric cars has made it easier for outsiders to venture into the market.
zdnet.com

“When we launched Prius [in the U.S.] back in 2001, gas was about one dollar a gallon, which was pretty tough for a car that is fuel efficient. The same thing is true for Mirai. In California, gas is 3.50 dollars a gallon which makes it tough, but these things are cyclical.”

Craig Scott, U.S alternative fuel vehicle manager at Toyota, says the company is still betting on hydrogen as the next revolution in clean energy vehicles. And for Toyota, launching a fuel-efficient vehicle when petrol prices are low is nothing new.
cnbc.com

“We’re happy to see other people use the Model S sedan and our business model as benchmarks, whether they are large companies or well-funded startups.”

Tesla spokesperson Ricardo Reyes stayed calm following the news that NextEV had set out to build even better all-electric cars than Tesla. After all, the term ‘Tesla-fighter’ is nothing new for the Californian carmaker.
reuters.com