Featured Warning from Toyota President - Akio Toyoda

On average, that's approximately 6,200 miles per year? That's similar to how much I do. So I will put my concerns aside, and Just Drive It. My car has the 10 year warranty on the hybrid battery, so I should be good.

 

Starship16 said: ↑
AC is for WIMPS! Just throw on a wet t-shirt!

Interestingly, direct evaporative cooling, which uses the same heat removal mechanism as sweating or wearing a wet T-shirt, is used in data centers:

http://www.dchuddle.com/2014/direct-evaporative-cooling/

 

Going back to the original article:

I remember reading about the Prius development effort: The Story Behind the Birth of the Prius, Part 1 | TOYOTA Global Newsroom

In 1993, the best laptop batteries were NiMH yet even then some "lugables" used lead-acid batteries. But did the Prius lobotomize Toyota to stop long term, strategic thinking?

I've worked on and off NASA programs since 1978 and often said, "NASA has one of everything ever built and low serial numbers." Having developed an advanced system it remains in service until it can no longer be maintained . . . sometimes I pulled these fossils from the warehouse to get running again to replace field units that had failed. For example, four-wire telephones used in mission control and 8-bit micro controllers of the space shuttle engine controllers.

I can sympathize with the human trait to keep what was once cutting edge long after it has been superseded. I kept our 2003, Gen-1 Prius running until May 2016 when I gave it to our housekeeper. She in effect was upgraded from pickups and medium sized, gas sedans. Suddenly she was spending 1/3d the amount of gas as before and with a 1kW, 120VAC inverter. And I replaced it with a plug-in, hybrid, 2014 BMW i3-REx.

Can Toyota excel in EVs? Probably but they will have to do a clean-sheet like they did with the Prius. Air cooled batteries won't cut it as the temperature management is inadequate.

Bob Wilson

 

i still miss my horse and buggy. and the income from the wagon wheel business.

 

I took a big hit on my zeppelin repair stocks.

 

I haven't used the Volt for the last few days, so it's been plugged in and fully charged. While doing some painting near it, I heard the A/C start up to cool the battery, since it was 95F outside.

 

C-HR is a lifted Prius. That unnecessary height may be a plan-ahead for the first EV, which will be C-HR next year in China.

 

I suspect greed came first

 

Here's my thought...
Certainly a projected future that includes a predominately electric vehicle based reality, changes the auto industry considerably in comparison to what or how it operates today.
But the headline is a somewhat misleading and alarmist to call it a "job killer". I believe it to be evolution, and so what will become a job changer.
Evolution has happened before. At one time, human transportation was dominated by hoof and rein. Yes the invent, and acceptance of horseless carriages, led to a loss of jobs for people primarily involved in supporting that infrastructure. But, a whole new infrastructure was created, that has in totality branched off and created countless jobs and opportunities directly and indirectly as a result of this evolution.

As humanity evolves from a fossil fuel based, ICE dependency for the majority of it's transportation needs, a similar evolution will occur. But new jobs, new opportunities will be created. The demand for a piston may decrease, but the demand for battery's or unforeseen components both operational and entertainment based will increase. As the infrastructure world wide grows to support this change, countless jobs I think will be created.

It's slow going. Nearly day to day imperceptible. But I've seen it already to some extent in my lifetime.
I think it more precise to say, the evolution towards electric vehicles will be a job killer in certain segments. But a job creator, in countless other areas and segments.

Prius is a fundamental pioneer in many ways towards this change. You pretty much have to come to Prius Chat, to read a plethora of threads about things like High Voltage Batteries, Charge Levels, Replacement, Repair. etc, etc...

Someday, similar discussions may happen in automotive forums representing a much wider number of nameplates and brands. I certainly would expect that Toyota be one of them and strongly represented with this evolution.
In short, I think Electric Vehicles, and evolution. And evolution comes with everything associated with it's reality, including the change and death of what was before, as well as the birth and life to the new.

 

Maybe individual vehicles in general, regardless of their means of propulsion, are on the wane?

 

The bar has been set by the 100 + years of development of the internal combustion engine in durability and longevity.
Once the BEV exceeds the ICE there will be no looking back.

 

Did you send it to bisco?

 

yea... I'm sure you could put a brand new pack of batteries on a shelf for a year and have fairly decent results... I mean I wouldn't do that, I'd want to love it more than that... As for 15 months at a dealership, the car probably got moved around the lot a bunch of times during that time...

 

Yet you still type very well.

Bob Wilson

 

Who needs jobs making cars when your new job creator is spending trillions of Yen ($626 billion) for decades , if not a century cleaning up the stupidest alternative energy blunder in human history? Real cost of Fukushima disaster will reach ¥70 trillion, or triple government's estimate: think tank | The Japan Times

 

Each battery chemistry is different... I don't know much about Lithium, but NiMH loses its greatest amount of charge in first 24 hours then is a very light drain after that. But my point is a brand new battery pack on a shelf is going to be well-balanced as it self-discharges and could sit there for a long time with not much issue.

I learned this because I spent time reading about NiMH separate from all the crazy notions of the batteries among Prius owners. I encourage everyone on here to learn as much as possible about battery chemistry science and how it behaves separate from all the anecdotals on here, which sometimes tend to defy the basic science.

 

Maybe yes, maybe no: we found it while wandering around a covered display shed they had. It was way at the back, boxed in by other cars, very dusty, and there was a dead bird lying beside it, lol. It cleaned up good though.

I got the sense it was a sale that had fallen through: it had illuminated thresholds, and some sort of bs id stickers on various components. Neither item was mentioned during the sale negotiations. There was maybe 20 kms on the odometer.

The 12 volt battery was completely dead, they tried to bluff their way through that, but we needed to restart it once to check something, and it was not happening. We got that replaced gratis.

Build date was August 2009, and we bought it in November 2010.