Featured Toyota Owners Trade Their Cars for EVs More Than Any Other Brand: Report

IBID:

And according to CarMax, Toyotas are the “most traded in brand for EVs,” which is telling for the Japanese automaker that has been more reluctant than most to transition to fully-electric cars.​

I kinda wish they'd shown the trade rate as a function of Toyota models. All I can share is I've met again a number of former Prius owners at other EV sites. I visit more than just Tesla EV sites.

Bob Wilson

 

toyota built the bridge, they just never believed anyone would actually cross all the way over

 

Quite the opposite. They discovered others would not. It was the lesson learned from hybrids.

 

word salad, i love my new term. thanks @FalconSeven

 

No problem! It's particularly apropos for comments like that one!

 

There is a bz4X sitting on the lot at Kalispell vw of all places. Whipped around & talked to the vw sales guy who said it was traded in for an ID4 of all things. Maybe Toyota wouldn't be the #1 source of new ev buyers if they had more of them to sell - AND ... their product was able to charge 5x times faster - like many of the other manufacturers that are taking the conquest sales from toyo.
It hasn't been that long that Toyota got rid of their anti ev head honcho - so it will take a while for them to catch up.
.

 

As an ID.4 owner, this totally checks out. Look at Edmonds range test between the two, and yeah... Bx4z is a dog.

 

Toyota is kinda like a maker of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube computer screens who refuses to sell flat panels screens when all their competitors came out with them. Because clearly CRT screens have been around since the first TV and there's no way we'll ever exist in a world without them, right?

 

Just yesterday, i test drove a Model 3. And I was considering trading my 2020 prius for it.

 

a lot of us are, and have.

 

It's such a bad name that people can't spell it correctly.

Survey is right on, I switched to an EV in 2019 and driven on them ever since. 100,000+ EV miles.

 

4X is too difficult?

ID.4 owners should be informed (VW).

EV6 owners might want to know too (Kia).

M3 owners couldn't care less (Tesla).

R1T owners might be interested (Rivian).

I5 came about to included Ioniq 5 owners (Hyundai).

XC40 owners just naturally appreciate it (Volvo).

Needless to say, claims of "bad name" serve no purpose. Those examples above clearly confirm that. Want more? Look up the rest of the BEV list just from the United States alone. There are far more letter/number names than most people realize.

 

I think this article draws a very biased/deceiving conclusion, leaving out a major criteria in this analysis.

While it is certainly interesting and notable to measure which brand is being traded in and it is true that Toyota has been slow to market with full EVs, I think this would be much more relevant if they also tracked the drivetrain of these vehicles being traded - i.e. pure ICE, diesel, hybrid, PHEV, etc. I am very confident that the vast majority of those Toyotas being traded were hybrids, or first gen Prius Primes, both wanting a bit more EV experience. Similarly, I am sure Prius remains near the top of the trade up vehicle list going to full EV, however there are many other Toyota hybrids besides Prius to keep it company now…

I think the conclusion that should be drawn here is that hybrid early adopters (and supporters of advanced technology) are still leading the charge (pun intended ) with EVs and since Toyota has dominated the hybrid market over the last ~20 years, this conclusion seems obvious. Inversely, I am curious how many EV buyers today have never owned a hybrid prior, of any make? I know that number is not zero, but still very low.

Toyota being the top trade in should not be focused as a weakness of Toyota (since they are still of the most in-demand vehicles with crazy wait lists…), just a natural evolution of their hybrid dominance; and the sooner they can get more desirable EVs to market, the more of this market share they will protect. They could also save a lot of this customer erosion if they can figure out how to ramp up manufacturing of more Prius Primes and RAV4 Primes, and make Primes out of whatever other models they can (*cough* Sienna *cough*)

Just my $0.02.

 

Good news @john1701a ! The bx4z made it to #3 on an Edmunds video, and they got the name right!

Bad news is... Well, the video.

 

Didn't read. Let me guess: they used stats and not actual whole numbers?

 

It's not a read it's a video and it was based off of the testers running from a full charge down to empty.

Oh well - the Mazda & mini were worse .... so toyo has room for improvement.
Maybe they should have balanced their decision against high-speed charging as the Audi can really put it away with their larger battery buffer & 800V architecture - & that somewhat makes up for lackluster range.

 

Luckily Toyota balanced the poor range with a poor charging curve.

It's astounding they didn't see this transition coming and have been caught so flat footed. Yes, Honda was caught out as well, but they're licensing ultium.

 

BZ = sub-brand

4X = model

Owners just referring to their vehicle with short name is quite normal. 4X doesn't have the problems associated with abbreviations either... PIP... R4P.