Featured Lexus Self-Charging (no plug)

Just one minor nit...
We use lots of cheap NG that comes from fracking to generate electricity in the US. This is widely used to power EVs.
NG has passed the declining coal generation and is about double all of renewables including hydro. It is fair to say that if there is a big upsurge in electricity demand due to EVs it will come mostly from NG.

Everything else you say is fine.

Mike
I got my first Prius in 2000, 3 more including my 2012 plugin. Had a Leaf for 3 years and just replaced it with a Model 3. And my cars are mostly powered from my rooftop solar.

 

that thought may discount some important considerations ....... a large contingent of plugin drivers DO add PV to their mix. Plus a large quantity of new home builders are now required by code to build PC onto new constructions. Plus - frack well pads fizzle out at a substantially faster pace than mega fields like in traditional middle east wells. Thousands of new pads need to continually be discovered & come on line - just to keep up with the ones that are continually drying up.
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Why does that bother you so much? Have U owned a Prius?

 

Because it is misleading, and implies they have defied the laws of physics with that self charging line. Hybrids get all their energy from gasoline. They don't charge themselves, you have to put more gas into them.

Toyota didn't use such advertising for the Prius. his started when they faced stiff competition from plug ins.

 

How is it misleading? It’s sold as a Hybrid. Motor and battery powered. The battery is always charged. I started my Prius this morning and selected the EV bottom before the engine kicked in and moved it with no ICE. My batteries were fully charged.

 

I guess my Mirai is not considered pure EV?!

 

The ad type states it has a self-charging battery. It's charged by the motor/generators of the hybrid system. Whose spinning is ultimately the result of burning gasoline. If there isn't gas in the tank, it isn't charged, and it isn't ready.

 

And if you don’t have solar panels, or power plant generating electricity to plug into your BEV, it isn’t ready.

 

With a Hybrid there is no plug, you let the ICE charge the battery, it’s always in a state of charge. It is self charging. If it was false advertising, don’t you think Tesla would be seeing Toyota in court?

 

Nobody is claiming a BEV is self charging. By Toyota's ad logic they could because of regenerative braking, but they would get called on the BS, which is what we are doing with the Lexus ads here.

 

I don’t see any BS. It is self charging - where is the plug?

 

it too - like a gasoline fueled hybrid, has to be plugged into a hose... a hydrogen hose, to get its electricity. No one is going to use electrolyzed renewable power to create hydrogen because it's roughly 3x the cost of using coal or natural gas or whatever other non-renewable you can use for steam Reformation. But BEV's can be economically recharged off of renewable energy. You could Define and EV like that. That's why hydrogen has remained a costly science project, for over ½ a century continually re-promising, "in just 10 more years".
But if you define an EV as any car - with or without a plug - using any non-renewable fuel to generate power? .... of COURSE it's an EV.

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So then you understand the concept that there is no plug, yet the battery is always charged. No BS by Toyota, just stating a fact.

 

Mira is not a hybrid. A BEV is a pure EV. So is an FCEV. Both produce kinetic energy using only a single mechanism (utilizing an electrochemical process to release stored energy in the form of electricity and then using a electromagnetic engine to translate that into kinetic energy).

A hybrid powertrain requires more than one mechanism of transforming stored energy into kinetic energy.

 

I guess by that count a f150 and non hybrid camry are also self charging, they charge their 12V batteries without a plug ;-)

Its a pretty convoluted concept and we know the reason. Lexus's biggest market is the US and in the US sales have been flat, while plug-in sales from tesla in the US have been growing rapidly. In fact so far in 2020 Tesla is outselling Lexus despite Tesla having only 4 models with the model Y still constrained by manufacturing versus Lexus's 11 model range. Lexus is losing market share on its models that compete with tesla in the US.

Lexus is doing better outside the US. It grew 10% worldwide with the biggest gains in china 25%, EU 14%, and Japan 13% in 2019 versus 2018. But in china they are going to have a bev soon. Tesla grew 50% in 2019 versus 2018 world wide and is growing faster in 2020 so far. Lexus will likely lose market share in the US in the next few years.

 

It is implying perpetual motion by ignoring that the electric side of a hybrid is tied to the ICE.

This ad campaign is purely in reaction to lost sales to competitors that refuel from a plug, and it will be quietly forgotten when Lexus 'Primes' come out.

For the longest time, Toyota tried to get FCEV called hybrids. It was even in their previous hydrogen car's name; FCHV, fuel cell hybrid vehicle.

Their logic was that it had a fuel cell and a battery.

If Toyota marketing is wrong about FCEV being a hybrid, how can they be right about a hybrid battery being self charging?

FCEVs have electric drivetrains, but without a plug, they don't give their users the freedom of choice for their energy source.

 

Doesn’t make it a hybrid.

 

The freedom of choice comes the day one decides to by an FCEV over a BEV.