Toyota hits back against California strict mandates for electric vehiclessome of which begin to come into effect in less than two years. The Japanese automaker believes that some of the mandates cannot be methe therefore wants the Californian authorities to modify them.

Like CNBC reportsCalifornia’s Air Resources Board (CARB) has put its Advanced Clean Cars II regulations into effect for model year 2026 vehicles, calling for “35 percent of model year 2026 vehicles, which will begin to be introduced next year, are zero emissions. vehicles, or ZEV. Under these regulations, alternative energy vehicles like plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells fall under these regulations, so an automaker is not only obligated to produce electric vehicles to meet these standards. This proved to be a problem for Toyota, as COO Jack Hollis explained to CNBC:

“I haven’t seen any forecast from anyone… government or private, anywhere, that has told us that this number is achievable. At this point, it seems impossible,” Jack Hollis, chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, said Friday during a virtual media roundtable. “The demand is not there. This will limit the customer’s choice of vehicles they want.

Hollis, and by extension Toyota, is calling for a change in the rules. He says that if left unchanged, the auto industry will face “unnatural acts”; automakers would make electric vehicles for the dozen states that have agreed to follow CARB rules. Save for bZ4Xthere are no other electric vehicles in Toyota’s lineup, although the brand’s offerings are heavily hybridized and it has a handful of PHEVs that should help meet CARB regulations.

According to Hollis, his hope is that California and CARB will find something that can actually be achieved with regulations that every state in the union can adopt. “Our hope would be that California and (the Environmental Protection Agency) come into line and this is reduced to something achievable.” Even though it’s a push, even though it’s a goal, but at this point it’s an impossible step,” he told CNBC.