Featured It turns out that Akio Toyoda was right

It's so funny how much money is spent on making excuses/condemnations for not advancing society in ways that solve problems.

In this instance, the decision was driven by “overwhelming consumer interest, maintaining a competitive advantage in the technology, and slowing industry demand for half-ton BEV pickups."

Lol... The pot calling the kettle black is too kind in instances like this. And the "consumer interest" in this case is actually just a product that majority of consumers can't afford, which is all the excuse the trillions in annual subsidies' industry that controls most of the world's military needs to preach their gospel.

Leave it to the fossil fool industry to create never ending shibboleths to ensure that oil production and subsidies and profits keep rising no matter how much it destroys the future of our children and our children's children.

Learn more here: We're getting the social media crisis wrong

 

"Know your audience" is my mantra which drives a few here crazy. They don't like the reality of how ordinary consumers actually perceive the technology and deal with change. The slow & cumbersome nature of their choices is bewildering to them. When you look in depth at the analytics of my YouTube channel, that story of progress becomes easier to understand. I'm seeing growth in my older content. Prius Prime videos are drawing interest. I hadn't anticipated stuff from years ago becoming popular search results.

Hope was always that ICE would be phased out to create a base of hybrids that could later be leveraged for plug augmentation. Seeing the stage Toyota is now setting for RAV4 makes that choice a sound business move. It simply made no sense 2 years ago when the legacy automakers were making "all in" pledges without any actual plan on how they would deal with the transition years between ICE and BEV. We have all heard the "stop gap" and "leapfrog" rhetoric and witnessed how those empty promises fell apart.

Starting my PHEV ownership 13 years, since then adding a second PHEV to the household later followed by a switch of one to BEV, it's become quite clear enthusiasts are the wrong audience to listen to. They tend to dismiss challenges of plug in setup for multiple vehicles as trivial. PHEV can exploit level-1 to the fullest, overcoming those challenges as well as inhibition that comes with new technology adoption. Toyota is well aware of that opportunity.

Things are about to get very interesting.

 

The auto industry is very complicated to say the least. There are times that jumping on an idea is imperative to keep moving forward. And there are times when doing so that end up only sinking a company. The general public is so gullible, but it depends on who they listen to who ends up convincing them.

 

Except not everybody will be able to afford a BEV. For those people, a PEV would be the best option. For me personally, I think my recent HEV buy is my last vehicle purchase unless I need to replace my 2000 Tundra ICE pickup.

 

I think this applies here:

I agree with Bisco and personally don't see how a PHEVs or even hybrids are at all that affordable when compared to the cheap ICE vehicles.

 

With some Toyotas now, like the 2025 Camry, Hybrid is the only choice if buying new. I felt fortunate to be able to afford one when forced to replace my 2017 Prius that was wrecked by a 4Runner.

 

Is it free to have people become touchy when the problems of BEVs are noticed, even by people who have and like them? They're great for some people; that doesn't make them optimal for everyone.

As battery tech improves and diversifies, cars with motors only should become convenient to use and affordable for more people. When that happens, people will buy them in larger numbers.

False consciousness isn't a new idea, but it has a history. It's an idea set forth by people who've lost the population.

 

Yes, and some day BEVs will be cheaper than ICEVs. But after my last hybrid purchase, I have my doubts that they will ever be an economic option when very used. A $5,000 or even cheaper non-hybrid will usually work just fine and, depending on various factors, may not be a whole lot to keep on the road. But a $5,000 hybrid may need a several thousand dollar battery to go with it, and perhaps several other thousands-of-dollar repairs soon to come. Not that there aren't non-hybrids that are prone to blow a transmission or something in the engine, but a hybrid with hundreds of thousands of miles on it will need a battery at some point, regardless of how often you changed the oil.

I've never driven a car without a motor. At one time I owned one with an air-cooled motor, another with a diesel motor and another with an electric motor all at the same time.

 

The opposite of a car with a motor only isn't a car without a motor. A car without an engine would rely on motors to propel it.

Most people have driven cars with engines that propel the vehicle with small electric motors used for other purposes, like wipers and window regulators.

I've driven cars with air-cooled engines, but those didn't use electrical motors for propulsion.

 

Or have the means to charge them. If you’re living in an apartment, street parking, you’ll be relying solely on commercial charging stations. I think the gratis charging at some malls is going to wane with widespread adoption; it’ll be overwhelmed by demand.

We’ve had this unfettered access to personal mobility for about a century now. Something needs to give, sooner than later. City planning that puts priority on convenient access to services and supplies, effective mass transit, whatever it takes.

For the occasional long distance road trip, maybe a car equivalent to the pony express? Riders would swap "horses" at regular stations along the route.

 

Well, I've heard some say that the word motor only refers to electric motors. But I've always called gasoline engines and diesel engines also gasoline and diesel motors, repectively. I've never gone into a parts store asking for engine oil or engine mounts nor have ever driven an enginecycle or enginehome. I always call them motor... motor oil, motor mounts, motorcycle, motorhome, motorboat, what spark plugs do you use in that motor, and how many cyclinders are in that motor, etc.

To me it's just easier to distinguish what we're talking about if you include the propulsion means behind the motor or engine. Electric motor, gasoline motor, gasoline engine, rocket motor, rocket engine, steam engine, steam motor, compressed gas motor, compressed gas engine, etc., etc., etc. Expecting everyone to know that by motor, one means electric motor and not gasoline motor is just plain confusing.

The same goes for AWD and 4WD as there are way too many types and personal definitions to just divide everything into two categories that you assume everyone should spontaneously understand. I've seen the exact same device called AWD and 4WD even by the same manufacturer.

 

I do not disagree with Bisco, at least in the context of his original reply there.

But that all goes out the window if fossil fuel prices rise through reduced subsidy, increased taxation and reduced availability.

 

And unless governments mandate that all homes should have EV charging, many of our chances of ever changing that situation are also waning. My probabilities of ever owning my own home feel like zero right now. Apartments for life it is, and just finding an affordable one that isn't 2/3s my income is already hard to do.

 

Right. I feel that we choose vehicles based a lot on what prices the government decides. Take away EV subsidies and EVs will be more expensive. Take away gasoline subsidies and gasoline will be more expensive. Right now I can tell you the price of an avocado. I have no idea what they'll cost in 3 years.

 

Don’t get me started about avocados.

 

Remove fuel taxes and you'd see increased demand. Push additional electrical generation so we don't have brownouts in the hottest weather, and you should see people more likely to utilize electricity.

The part about people in apartments or homes not set up to charge a vehicle battery quickly goes to the same general point. For a vehicle to make sense in the market it has to make sense to consumers as they exist, not as you hope they might be one day in the future. If someone lives in an apartment without ready access to charging and drives longer distances, he isn't a bad guy for not wanting an expensive battery car.

 

A person's personal vehicle is about choice. Whether one chooses a bike, car, truck, van, gas, diesel, hybrid or EV is totally up to them. No one is a bad guy for whatever they pick. When .gov and others try to force their decisions on them through law and/or moral guilt is when things go wrong. Pick your poison and let other pick theirs.

 

Vehicles and type of vehicles have long been forced in one way or another in the USA by the government and others whether people are conscience of it or not. If that's not the case, then explain to me why I can't walk to work or take the bus, taxi or Über here where I live.