Featured Toyota's next EV is...the Aygo?

1st manufacturer? Sorry for being a tad slow understanding what that means. Toyota's 1st (US) ev was almost 20yrs ago - the 1997 Rav4ev. Can you imagine? Almost 2 decades! And several are still cruising our area - via So Cal Edison's fleet, as well as UC Irvine's fleet.

Lots of utility in that little suv ev, yet still room for over a true 100 mile ranged battery - and that was with the much less energy dense nickel metal hydride format. Still, the fact that these batteries are still running around the landscape shows how truly robust & reliable that chemistry is, despite it's heavier weight per kWh.
Now THAT's a city vehicle i can see has utility. And it kinda makes me regret seeing so many of the mini SUV's getting oversized.
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There is the Twizy. I couldn't find prices with the battery, but I expect it is close to the Aygo's 10k euro price. Need a bigger city car, The Zoe is under 15k euros with the battery lease. Buying battery seems to bring the price up to 20k euros.

Toyota already has a Twizy equivalent, but it isn't for sale to the general public. The iQ EV was priced around $45k in Japan.

As for the others not in the EV city car segment, it is a small segment, and BEVs are still a small part of the larger segments. The consider that the EV city car might only be viable in cities that have banned ICE cars, it becomes a smaller segment.

And where do you get the idea that Toyota will cut these prices in half? From the article,
"It’s thought that Toyota could see car sharing and monthly-payment lease schemes as a way of opening up an electric city car to users who would otherwise be put off by a high list price. Van Zyl said, “The sharing economy is one of the shining economies. That, in cities, might be the direction. But it’s also a difficult business model to make work, because at the end of the day, whether somebody is sharing or using it, somebody has to pay for it. The asset must be funded."
Nothing there about a substantial price drop. Just alternatives to how the car is paid for so that individual users will have a lower monthly payment, like Renault's battery leasing. There are already car share programs here. Do it with an ICE city car, and its cost per user will be significantly lower than the BEV model's.

I think an affordable EV city car will come, but as I said before, it won't be because of Toyota. In addition to the companies named before taking the risks and making investments for BEVs now, there is also the incentives from government that is encouraging them.

 

Was this car even truly marketed by Toyota.

 

I'm not sure it necessarily implies selling the Spark EV at a loss but it certainly does imply the need to gain ZEV mandate credits. They only get the credits if the cars are registered in a CARB state.

 

Toyota had published stuff for different web based sites (like the one i'd quoted yesterday @ post #8) to pick up on if they felt it was worth their time - but no - there was never any radio/tv ads here in the high population CARB state - if that's what you mean. But of course that makes perfect sense considering the very low quantity that they only/ever intended to import here. One might contrast that against Toyotas latest hydrogen car the Mirai. Making a few hundred AND throwing huge lobby dollars meant it get what - maybe 10X the CARB/zev credits as the uber-low volume eQ got? Suddenly, with a mulit-fold CARB credit - it'd be much more worth advertising ... ah la magazines, tv etc. Heck i think the Mirai even got expensive Superbowl air time, didn't it? It was worth advertising, because the CARB/ZEV offsets were so much more valuable, even though it's low volume.
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You asked it there was a low price EV city car, and there is. The smart only seats 2.
I also mentioned the Zoe as your asking for one near the Yaris price. How doesn't that one apply as a low cost BEV?

Then there was the separate issue of how you thought this piece of news meant Toyota had cut the EV city car price in half. While you may not like the low price BEV options that already exist, don't expect any miracles from Toyota on improving that.

The original plan was to offer it for sale, but it was possible to buy a Leaf, a bigger car with nearly double the range, for around the same price as Toyota had wanted to put on the iQ EV. So Toyota decided to not offer it for sale. The few that were already made quietly went into some fleets.

 

well since Twizzy's (if they ever bring it to the US) aren't designed to high speed crash tests, it'd fail US DOT safety standards. Thus, for example, as a Canadian import, it's sold merely as a 'NEV' which get relegated to 25mph golf cart speeds.
Renault to sell Twizy EV in Canada | Automotive Industry News | just-auto

In part, that's why micro ev's from Toyota - or the smart - or the iMiev cost so much more - they can give/take a high speed hit without disintegrating and the driver may actually have a chance of surviving. Then there's the issue of the Twizy battery. Last I read, Renault was only leasing them. That's another $700 a year for 10 years. Heck, at one time you could lease a Mitsubishi i-MiEV for only $149/month.
... or with $2,100 up front to cover tax/license - just 69/month
Mitsubishi i available for just $69 a month in this outrageous lease - Autoblog
Now that was a bargain.


And at one time - Mitsu employees could pick up a lease for only $99 ~
iMiev for $99 employee lease | PriusChat

It even holds 4 adults comfortably - just luke the Prime!

(sorry - that was ornery)

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You were giving the impression that there was no affordable BEV options. While not ideal, battery leases make a BEV affordable. Toyota is looking into monthly leases and car sharing for city BEVs to make the cars affordable to individuals, but they aren't lowering the cost of the car from those >20k euros.

So your opinion that Toyota can pull off a miracle and cut the price in half is one they themselves don't share. It isn't going to take a miracle to lower the costs of the next generation of the current city cars anyway, but the continued steady improvement in battery technology and production. That just takes investment. Investment Toyota has not made. They will have the benefit of the investment others have made when they do get serious about a BEV, but that isn't worthy of credit for advancing the technology, and making BEVs affordable to the masses.