Featured Toyota to give royalty-free access to hybrid-vehicle patents

20 thousand shitty patents? Toyota engineers suddenly became stupid the last 20 years?...

 

Well they did invent the "self charging" car:

Bob Wilson

 

It is not a patent, it is marketing botox

 

There were valuable at the time. It doesn't take away from their engineering skill.
It took great engineering talent to make high quality CRT tube electronics at one time.

Mike

 

Agreed - their hybrids were groundbreaking, they persisted, and they were the most reliable cars of the last 2 decades. And still are.

Hybrids are, in many cases in the world - including here with predominantly dirty electricity and expensive petrol, more relevant and "green" than BEVs or PHEVs.

For them to offer the patents - some of which could be of use to other companies, is commendable and shouldn't be criticised - but applauded.

 

not that coal powered electricity is the major source anymore in the United States, but yeah, you're right of course. We should only Drive hybrids, & not those dirty plugins - because burning gas is much cleaner than electricity.

Still, one needs to figure out how electricity is cleaner - being refined not only from 'Dirty electricity', but simultaneously from Dirty petrochemical sources as well. Is that a double whammy? Riddle me that.

.

 

Perhaps you are in the wrong country. In Canada, at least in the past, the majority of electricity was from hydro electric power plants. So much o that people referred to their electricity ar hydro & the power company at that time was Ontario Hydro.

Not everybody lives in "dirty" California. Move to the other CA
Right, @Mendel Leisk & @Tideland Prius ?

Example:

Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Stations - Wikipedia

 

When I was a kid in elementary school they would tell us that electricity came from water. I took that literally, pictured some sorta extraction process.

 

Which would change the equation for Canada. Last I could find, we had 86% dirty electricity, though I think it's been improving - one conjecture I read recently was high 70%s. And, as such, Hybrid is still the better option.

Particularly as there isn't really anywhere much to plug in other than in Capital Cities and a few other remote locations.

And - our electricity prices @ $0.24 /kWh, I suspect are higher than in USA.

 

It looks like my fixed costs are $465.44 per year.

And to install an EV (PHEV) charging point at home looks like between $1800 and $2300 (Google search).

To complicate matters - I've got a small SOLAR array (1.5kw if it's in a good mood, averages 1.2kw). Back 9yrs ago when I put it in, 1.5kw was the norm. BUT - I can sell power back to the Grid for more than I'm paying for electricity!!!! during peak times - so putting it into an EV/PHEV would be fiscally dumb.

 

Didn't Toyota literally say they didn't release the PiP in some parts of Europe because of a dirty grid.

It will be nice for those that take advantage of it. It is just past the point where many will, since many already have their own hybrid technology in production. Some this seems more of a gesture of little substance in comparison to Tesla, who had opened up the patents before Toyota even opened up their FCEV ones.

 

Yet Australia's dirty coal is perfectly fine for their hydrogen cars.

 

Hydro from coal? I think it's simpler to reform from methane...

 

borh provide a heat source for reformation. Both natural gas (methane) & coal release CO2 & that is a bone of contention for some. Fracking (some contend fracking is dangerous for groundwater supplies) has brought the cost of natural gas below the cost of coal (nevermind tons of mountains of coal ash?) - currently natural gas is about 15% less than brown coal per BTU because Brown coal has to be dried in order to extract its heat source. At that close a proximity to cost, it's probable that reforming hydrogen from cheap, plentiful brown coal - on site around Victoria Australia is cheaper then reforming hydrogen on site in Japan, after the refrigerated Natural Gas arrives in Japan ports, from much much further away.
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