Featured Toyota still balking on EV's

That has nothing to do with transplanting a drive system into another vehicle. Not paying attention or did I push exactly the right button?

 

For those whose lifestyle an EV works, just buy a Tesla 3. When/if Toyota finally comes out with one, the cost will likely be comparably priced.

 

Width needs to be Prius v wide. Had 4 people plus driver the other day. Adult, 13 year-old and car-seated 7 year old in back seat. NFL lineman sized in front. And me the driver.

 

Yes...I just measured my Prime - 50 inches wide between the doors. Airliner 3-seats = 52 inches. You want a middle seat 2 inches narrower than on an airliner?

 

No Prius accommodates 5 grown adults...well maybe in Japan.

 

all tbe point was - was that even small 5 seater cars are not in vogue nowadays. Isn't that why Tesla keeps tooting their horn about the model 'Y' in the not-too-distant future? ... to accommodate the majority of buyers wanting to be in an SUV-ish type car? Isn't that why the RAV4 hybrid is cannibalizing Prius sales?
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That's why we have both.

 

understood - yet many a nice 5 seater has been sent to the chopping-block over the past year or more - GM, Ford & Toyota. Can you imagine the market share missed by the Sienna & /or Tacoma if they had been hybridized already? In stead - if you want a 7 seater - or a 2½ ton sized hybridized vehicle - what is there to pick from? iirc, just the Hyhi or the Pacifica.
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Not the RAV4.

 

but at least it's sales are still doing nicely.
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...and the Wife still likes it...so that's all that really matters.

 

Statistically speaking, if you need to carry 5 people in a single car, there is a good chance one of them is small enough for the middle seat.

 

Or too small for the middle seat. A car seat is as wide as a 300 pound adult.

 

Sadly, the VW on the ground today, offers nothing worthwhile in the EV category, whether pure EV or hybrid. I recently visited the Puente Hills VW store in Socal: one electric VW for sale, dirty and carefully hidden from prying buyers. $33,000+, a lousy 120 miles of range! Similar experience at other VW dealers in our area a few months back. Talk is cheap; I ain't seen no VDubs, exceptin' them thar ones that runs on grassoline!! When it takes more than 15 minutes to charge the thing, if you can find an available charge station, me and Homer's gonna pass on them Dubs and other EV Mattel toys!! At least plugin hybrids are available, reliable, and offer CHOICE to deal with our nascent EV infrastructure!

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

VW is spending billions on electric car development--you just have to wait until next year when they finally start coming out with the new cars (the eGolf doesn't really count--it is just a compliance conversion car).

Toyota may be right that electric cars are not cheap enough yet for many of its customers.

What I don't understand, though, is why they are spending so much on developing fuel cell cars, which are even more expensive than electric cars and more expensive to fill up than gas cars, and can't drive anywhere because there are no stations:

Toyota Believes Fuel Cell Prices Will Match Hybrids

 

follow the money...

 

But not all Toyotas are cheaper than EVs. I'm seeking to buy a $41k no rebate hybrid from Toyota. (Some are much more, price a HiHi.) You can get several models of EV for less and from manufacturers that aren't producing just compliance cars.

 

One solution for all, especially with so many markets to serve, doesn't make sense. Hydrogen won't be everywhere, but commercial fleet use has strong market potential. The electric drive system can be shared anyway. So, there's a win-win. Heck, even battery advances can be used by both. So, delay with full EV and maturing the FCV tech in the meantime isn't a futile waste as many spin it to be. We reap the benefits for PHV use along the way too.

Basically, it's Toyota thinking long-term & high-volume facing critics obsessed with limited scope returns. After all, who's to say all the investment VW is doing will put them anymore ahead? Look at Tesla, so much spending in charging infrastructure has left them very short on sales & support infrastructure. Balance of risk necessitates diversity. Notice how little Volt accomplished for GM. That major investment in plug-in hybrid tech was just abandoned. Was it good to cut-bait like that?

The answer to that GM conundrum comes from whatever the next step delivers. If their learning experience results in profitable & sustainable sales from whatever Bolt becomes, then yes, it was good. If GM just flounders and is unenable to fortify their foothold in the plug-in market, then no, it was a waste. That same logic can be applied to Toyota.

It all boils down to market impact. What really affects the status quo? Most of the hype garners much praise, but really doesn't achieve any real change.

 

aren't the 100's of thousands of satisfied owners & used owners something more than "how little volt accomplished"?
Don't the battery advances that Toyota gets from regular hybrids transfer over to their plug in hybrid?
Isn't this the same battery advancement theme that traveled from the volt to the bolt? And maybe a SUV or pick up plug - someday?
Often mentioned in this ongoing dialogue is how vehicles have to eventually compete without cash/tax incentives. Yet here in the land of carb credits - thanks to the fuel-cell lobby, the fuel cell cars get double, as well as double the cash back from California. Yet with all that help, the cars are still obscenely high-priced. Especially if the goal for the masses, is to build something affordable for the masses. Doesn't that principal apply to hydrogen? Especially after decades of trying to forever make cars (and their equally expensive fuel) 'for the masses? We keep hearing eventually those costs will come down. But that's been ongoing since the 1970's. Sometimes you have to know when to fish - or, quoting from above, "cut bait". Some manufacturers already have seen the logic in not throwing any more good money after bad. The others? Not so much.
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152k Volts sold vs. 59 million all others 2010-2018?

In a word? No.