2023 Toyota bZ4X EV (Reviews start on page 6)

Toyota delivered 5,233 RAV4 Primes for the 1st quarter of 2022. It looks like they're going to be allocating more PHEVs to Europe than the US. I would expect them to also deliver more bZ4X to Europe as well.

Toyota Allocates More RAV4 Primes To European Market Than U.S. Market | Torque News

 

I would not be surprised, however, I think their are holes in their logic.
They mention the European market being 80% of the US market. And then note the ration of RAV4-Primes sold in each country, and conclude more of the Primes must be allocated to Europe.

Information I could find indicate CARB states make up 45% of the US auto market. If Toyota is only selling the RAV4 Prime in CARB states, Then they European market is much larger, and the numbers line up fairly well.

I know some people have bought from out of state to buy a Prime. From what I have read and seen, they are very rare outside of CARB states.
I suspect the BZ4X will be as well.

 

There is clearly a huge pent up market for these vehicles and yet Toyota can't/won't meet the demand. They can assuage their investors by claiming supply chain issues are at fault, but they were playing this game long before that was an issue.

There aren't many scenarios where this behavior makes sense from a rational, profit-maximizing company. If Toyota has a constrained supply of batteries it doesn't make sense to use those precious resources making a $28,000 Camry hybrid if they can use those batteries making a $50,000 RAV4 Prime unless the margin is smaller on the RAV4. Same thing with chips and everything else required to produce vehicles.

I still suspect Toyota has had an internal shift in corporate marketing strategy. Specifically that they're going to attempt to leverage their huge market share to boost margins by intentionally engineering scarcity to drive up prices. I think it will work in the short term, but I think in the long run it will cost them dearly. If you piss off your loyal customer base it can take a generation or more to recover. Unfortunately history is filled with countless examples of people overplaying their hand and paying the price. It seems to be a fundamental property of human nature and a lesson most humans are incapable of learning.

 

that's why i'm still driving a 10 year old pip

 

I would think if they are battling VW and GM (or even Honda, Mazda, Nissan, et al) for world domination, especially VW, why would they create any artificial scarcity? Would this not give their competitors an upper hand? They, like everybody else, started to rely on a single country to develop all the chips, which is bouncing from one lockdown to another, and are feeling the same constraints as GM, Ford, Stellantis (Dodge/Chrysler parent company), VW, etc. who are also trying to pick from the same basket. You think Toyota is the only one not getting vehicles to their dealers? Things look pretty bare at most dealerships. But other car makers are starting to sell cars without certain features and promise to add them in later. Chip Shortage Causing Automakers to Delay Some Features - Consumer Reports. Pretty sure Toyota doesn't want to do that.

Personally, I just view it as poor planning. Europe is quickly approaching their no new gas engine sales ban and soon even Toyota's hybrids will be personna non grata. Watch we'll be getting their influx and you should be able to pick up these unwanted hybrids. Your RAV4 Hybrid Isn't That Far as Toyota Dealers Get Unexpected Supply | Torque News

 

That's the BS they're feeding their investors and customers, but Toyota was slow-rolling the RAV4 Prime LONG before any supply chain issues. Not to mention all the lobbying they did against EVs. It's like trying to blame gas prices on Russia: nice story, but the problem predates the explanation.

 

Nah we've always had a lot of RAV4 Primes here. They just shifted the RAV4 Primes from a saturated market (I mean EV-type saturation) like yours to ones that aren't like here. There's 3 on local lots, which has been a miracle because there hasn't been more than 8 cars on the lots at any one time. Granted most of them are the XSE models which brings in more money, but the dam is breaking. I'm starting to see more and more cars on the dealer lots but nothing like pre-pandemic still.

 

Toyota knew tax-credit renewal was unlikely. It made no sense racing to a cliff with such uncertainty, especially when you can build up reliability data in the meantime.

 

That makes no sense. If they would have have their supply chains in order and sold more cars they would have had MORE data to collect reliability data from.
.

 

Quality not quantity.

 

Aren’t the acrobatics impressive??

 

Having worked for Toyota and having experience in their Engineering Department I would feel comfortable saying Toyota is quite far ahead of other makers in their parts sourcing. There are individuals whose job it is to develop multiple suppliers for a part so that they are not dependent on one maker for the part - that way union strikes, worker lockouts and other such nonsense will not cripple them. They also assign Toyota Workers to actually be assigned to vendors to help them develop their factories with the Toyota Production System. They have yearly banquets where outstanding suppliers are recognized and rewarded.

Did Toyota predict a worldwide pandemic responsible for millions of deaths and resultant supply chain issues -no.

Who did?

Is Toyota wringing it hands and crying about the lack of chips- No -They are doing something about it- they found a problem and are counter measuring it.

Toyota forms a joint venture to make its own self-driving car chips | Engadget

"Toyota is getting into the semiconductor business, partnering with auto supplier Denso to form a new company focused on chip manufacture. The aim is to create next-generation semiconductors for use in the automotive industry and in self-driving cars in particular."

How Toyota kept making cars during the worldwide chip shortage | Fortune

Why Toyota had a big pile of chips when semiconductor shortage dealt others a bad hand (autoblog.com)


Toyota is no longer battling anyone for domination They have won

Toyota Remains the World’s Largest Automaker - The Detroit Bureau
"But Toyota remains bullish, expecting to produce 11 million units for its new fiscal year, which begins in April, according to a published report in the Nikkei newspaper. Whether COVID-19 and its variants allow that to happen remains to be seen.

This contrasts with sentiments at Volkswagen, with the automaker expecting chip shortages to continue into 2023. Given this expectation, VW expects 2022 production of as much as 9 million units, according to German business magazine, Manager Magazin. But that’s if things go as expected. The report suggests that production could drop to 8 million units should the situation deteriorate. "

 

Sounds like they were about a decade ago.

 

This is the hubris that always leads to the decline. It's not a battle that you win and it's settled. It's a dynamic marketplace and you're only dominant as long as you're making more of what people want than anyone else, but the moment you're not making more of what people want you aren't dominant any more.

There is no denying that Toyota has been fighting EVs for years, despite the clear demand from consumers. There is no denying that Toyota has been dragging its feet producing PHEVs and EVs despite extraordinary consumer demand. If a company continues fighting the will of its customers, and continues refusing to produce enough product to satisfy their customer's demands there is no question that they will lose their dominance. No question whatsoever. The only uncertainty here is whether Toyota is going to continue down that road or not.

 

Yes, it wasn't too long ago that Volkswagen was Numero Uno. Before that it was GM. GM thought it was so big it could do whatever processes that it wanted. Volkswagen decided to commit criminal activity rather than build an honest low emission high mileage vehicle. Lots of reasons that companies tumble from the top of the Heap.
.

 

Working for Toyota for 30 years and being in the automobile industry it is interesting to see how people don't realize just how dynamic some automobile companies are.

We went to Japan for initial training in 1987. Even back then Toyota was thinking decades ahead. We had to help with waterborne paint trials on actual cars as well as testing powder coating technologies with Dupont, PPG and Toyota Engineers. Some of the technology being used to apply the coatings were so advanced they are still not common in the industry almost 40 years later.

For those worried about Toyota, they have thousands and thousands of talented individuals with advance engineering and technical degrees working worldwide and partnering with Industry Leaders and these companies most talented engineers developing cutting edge products and technologies in the automotive arena. Toyota even has its own Engineering School for promising individuals who possess extraordinary talent.

I am going to guess Toyota has a better grip on things than most internet posters (I am including myself here with everyone else).

This article gives us a small glimpse of Toyota's enormous business enterprises

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION GLOBAL WEBSITE｜75 Years of TOYOTA (toyota-global.com)

If you think this is a small plodding Automotive Company, you are very sadly mistaken. This is a dynamic modern company with cutting edge technologies and diversification that will rival any other company.

It's curious how many on this website underestimate Toyota and have no appreciation for the wonderful company it is and the wonderful contributions it makes to society. It catches my attention as I have had an opportunity to see firsthand what a great company they are and all the good they do for society.

 

Toyota, Subaru extend Japan holiday shutdowns over supply crunch - Nikkei Asia

No underestimation on my part, but Toyota is not completely isolated from worldwide issues. They are simply taking those issues into account and adjusting. Personally I’m also reading that chip suppliers are slowly returning to pre-pandemic manufacturing levels. As I said previously the dam will break, but it is nice to see a local dealer have 20+ vehicles on the lot rather than the 1 or 2 last year into this.


iPad ? Pro

 

That can be an asset or a liability, depending. If a company is thinking decades ahead, sometimes their thinking about the future will turn out to have been wrong. How quickly they realize their mistake, and how they choose to react, make all the difference.

For some reason human nature is to try and sweep mistakes under the rug or paper over them, even though it never works. Even little kids do it when they fall off their bike and say "I meant to do that," or continue to insist they didn't eat any candy with a face covered in chocolate. I don't pretend to know why it's human nature, but it clearly is an innate property of humans.

I get the feeling there's a little bit of this going on at Toyota right now. It's my own speculation, but their behavior seems to me like a company that still believes EVs are a fad and so they view it as a market segment they can afford to be a little less responsive to.

I don't see how making a wrong guess about the future of EVs and Toyota's lobbying against EVs has anything to do with whether they've made any contributions to society. This isn't the movies. There isn't only bad guys wearing black and good guys wearing white. There's just humans who sometimes do amazingly great things and other times do amazingly terrible things.

 

Read another press release: Five Things to Know About the All-Electric Toyota bZ4X - Toyota USA Newsroom

A couple of surprising things were pointed out but not until I was reading the sub headings, in particular number 2:

"As temperatures decrease below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, charging time will increase significantly."

"Drive battery level and condition, charger specifications and DC charging more than twice per day also can negatively affect charging time."

And if you want the AWD this little jewel: "DC charging may not work on AWD bz4x when the temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit."
Now we know why that one reviewer had issues with DC charging. No addendums about whether the car is cold soaked below 32º or whether you've been driving previously.

 

Nothing surprising.

I have seen the warmer for Prius Prime achieve over 10°C (50°F) in the dead of winter, here in Minnesota. 50°C (122°F) is pre-warm temperature for SuperCharging. This is just basic chemistry presented to a new audience. A warm battery is required for charging.

This is the opposite side of temperature, one much more difficult to address. If you are already dealing with a super-heated battery and the vehicle is getting baked in the hot sun, how do you both cool the battery then prevent charging from raising the temperature? You have to slow down the charge-rate.

That has always been true of lithium chemistry. Electrical resistance rises dramatically when its temperature is below freezing.