On the Absence of Anosov Factors for DA Local Diffeomorphisms

We give a class of local diffeomorphisms which are homotopic to toral hyperbolic endomorphisms, but which are not topologically semi-conjugate, within the homotopic class of the identity, to any Anosov local diffeomorphism. In particular, we show that for a non-invertible partially hyperbolic $C^1$-smooth local diffeomorphism with expanding directions on the $2$-torus, if it is semi-conjugate to an Anosov local diffeomorphism, then it is also an Anosov local diffeomorphism.