Took the time to try to find more info on this.

Apparently it came from a 90 minute talk by a Toyota Australia executive. And the assumption is that the power grid supplying the BEVs are dirty in comparison to the hybrids which reduce CO2 in their power generation/efficiency.

https://evcentral.com.au/ev-versus-hybrid-toyotas-co2-hype-analysed/

This really smells of bullshit because it really doesn’t have anything to do with choosing one or the other.

We should be choosing BEVs and also putting tremendous effort on the power grid to go renewable energy.

I’ve come full circle on this statement after reading some more.