Featured 2023 Toyota bZ3 Sedan Leaked

The Volt was cancelled because the Impala, LaCrosse, and CT6 made along side it were being cancelled, and the factory shut down. Public response over the shutdown, had GM back down on that, and eventually convert the plant for EV production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit/Hamtramck_Assembly
Many sedan models were cancelled around that time. The Avalon wasn't doing much better than the Impala, and even it was eventually cancelled, to be replaced by a crossover.

The Volt's price was continually dropping. By the end, is was less than $2500 more than the PiP was. Battery costs dropped as rapidly as they did because of GM, Tesla, and Nissan calling for mass quantities from the beginning. The Prius Prime could be priced as low as it is, because of them. GM did spread technology to China in Buicks.

Hybrids aren't a paradigm-shift. They are ICE cars with electric components to make better use of the fuel. They still have all the ICE maintenance requirements that dealers profit from. We've had hybrids for decades before in trains, ships, and heavy equipment, the public just wasn't aware of that. As for plug ins, Toyota still seems to have issue with Gulf Coast and Southeast.

 

As well as the Midwest. Primes are rare at dealers. I’ve seen one RAV4 Prime, the owner bought it from a CA dealer.

 

In NC haven't seen a Prime. Saw one Mustang EV. Teslas everywhere.

 

In a city with a ton of tesla's and Priuses and Rav4's there are few Prius primes, I think I've spotted 2, and one rav4 prime. I expect that if Toyota moves rav4 prime production to North America and ramps production to get the tax break there will be more. Otherwise I doubt many will pay, and Toyota will need to drop the price.

 

Where I work (and live), I must see dozens of Tesla models every day. It is almost like I can look out at the ever-changing 220-car parking lot for 8 hours a day through giant windows, or go out there several times a day bringing in the carts. Ionic5's maybe twice a day, ID4's about the same number, a couple of Mach-E's, RAV4 Hybrids - good number of those daily, but never ever have I spotted a RAV4 Prime. They're very rare I'd guess, but maybe another reason is that the stealerships are adding a ridiculous market adjustment and their prospective customers won't wait, or pay. Toyota dealers are real jerks around here. Judging by the Tesla to everything else ratio, they're very likely to just pop for a Tesla BEV rather than playing the long dealer game.

 

IMHO, the front end looks like a new generation of Prius PHV/Prime - just look at it, same lights, same trunk curvature, same bumper (even when you look at side photo)

 

If I read the article right, this is a BYD car with Toyota branding/design. And as usual, the important things, like battery tech/capacity/range are missing. It reminds me of a Corolla.
I was reading several posts in this thread, and regarding wait times, everybody is waiting for *any* car the world over. Chips are not available in enough quantity for *all* types of cars, not just EVs. I was reading recently an article on the NYT about a dealer in Georgia overwhelmed with orders for the F-150 Lighting. He said they were delivering Broncos ordered *2 years* prior... Everybody is waiting. And in the USA they are waiting "more" because they never waited for anything when buying a car: driving off the dealer's lot is what US drivers are used to do. I lived in Europe and each single car I ever bought the wait was anything between 2 and 4 months, in normal times.
When the Audi A3 came out in the 90s, the requests were so high a friend of mine waited *9 months* to get it.
As for Toyota, either they come out with a revolutionary BEV Prius, or I don't know what they think they are going to do in the not so distant EV future.

 

Not only that but by walking in cash in hand on the last day of the quarter in the rain at night, I could expect a 10% discount. They wanted to make the quota.

Toyota just announced shutdown of 14 factories for days and sometimes weeks in Japan over parts shortages .. attributing it to chips.

 

Because of the vertical integration versus contracting assemblies, Tesla designs their chips, circuits, software, and functions beyond what a gaggle of contractors could achieve. This integrated design, the vertical, means Tesla has more flexibility to change vehicle parts using available microcontrollers. To save a few dollars, the MBA engineers outsourced their vehicle subassemblies which made them unable to complete cars selling for $10s of thousands.

Bob Wilson

 

Ford can't get enough Blue Oval badges and who know what is keeping a bundle of GM trucks sitting half built.

Saw my first up close Mustang EV yesterday. Small.

Happened to be in the rich part of Cary/Raleigh this morning after church and we were commenting that it seemed at least 10% of the cars we saw were Teslas.

 

Regarding my post # 45 above, where I should have added "...but I've not yet seen a Rivian..."

So I'm ringing up a very large order and I mentioned "we should get you another cart to load all these bags, hold on, let me get one for you." I had no customers in line after her, and grabbed ahold of the second cart to help her to her car. "It's the white one down there, the pickup truck." "The R1T?" I replied. She looked surprised that I even knew the model name. We talked. She briefly showed off the truck and some features like the gear tunnel and the powered cover. I asked when she bought it. Her reply was "last year at this time." Now, I happened to know when the first deliveries to customers was, so I then asked "Wait, wasn't that prior to general deliveries?" That got her attention. Turns out it was a company vehicle. She works at Rivian, and is one of the recruiters. Then she mentioned that she JUST hired a coule people out of our company and that they were some of the best people she has ever hired. We didn't have much time to talk, but when, and not if, she returns, I'm going to ask for her business card, as I think she was getting around to asking if I'd ever want a shift in careers. Yes, maybe. Maybe I might! I don't think I'd ever want to move to Irvine, though.

 

Nothing wrong with the grille. Comments about the grille are getting tiresome.

 

I think the number indicates the size and the x indicates that it's a crossover.

Bz3 is a smaller vehicle than the bz4x and is not a crossover.

 

so are comments about the comments

 

OK, let's agree to talk about less subjective things. People like what they like. We don't need others trying to influence preferences.

 

Sedans are generally longer than SUVs and are always longer if they belong to the same size class, ie "midsize".