Featured Does the Toyota Mirai tease a sportier direction for the next Prius?

If you are limiting the point to the near future, sure. And if the size of the BEV market were to remain about where it is, I might agree even for the longer term. But the market is due to expand a lot, especially in China and Europe. While Tesla is building plants in those regions, scaling up to produce 10x or 20x the present number of units will take time, time during which companies that already have the production, human, marketing, et al resources can close that technology gap significantly.

I'm sure the auto industry is going to look a lot different 10 years from now. Which players will be winners and which losers remains to be seen, and that very much includes Tesla.

 

I think that assumes a rose-tinted view of their respective regional economies. I'm not an economist by any stretch but even I get the vibe that things aren't really going that direction.

 

It's not just a matter of economics. In the EU, emission standards are slated to tighten to the point where plug-in vehicles -- at least PHEV and more likely BEV -- will be necessary to meet them.

I'm not an economist, either, but the actual economists forecast a large shift to EV. For example, this from the BloombergNEF 2019 EV Outlook:

"Over 2 million electric vehicles were sold in 2018, up from just a few thousand in 2010, and there is no sign of slowing down. We expect annual passenger EV sales to rise to 10 million in 2025, 28 million in 2030 and 56 million by 2040."

Of course, if a 2008-level economic slowdown occurs, that could change things. But so could an economic upturn.

 

i think a sportier looking prius will far outsell a toyota bev and be much more profitable in the near future

 

I'm agreeing with you, those economists and anticipating such a slowdown. In other words I think there will be a big shift to EV starting after we all slog through 10-12 years of economic malaise.

Electric MR2!!

 

Maybe. Personally I think Toyota is right to do the Rav-4 Prime as their next EV, at least for the US market.

 

I sincerely hope you are wrong!

 

i agree with the rav4 prime. i just hope it doesnt lose any interior space like the prime prime, and is low cost like the prime prime

 

I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

 

me neither, just random priuschat speculation. i wouldn't buy one anyway, i can't go back to dead dinosaur power

 

I know the feeling.

 

If it's not across the board, maybe everyone will be tooling around in pickup trucks? In the last decade in my locale, there's been an incredible migration out of passenger cars, into CUV's and SUV's, maybe fueled in part by laxer emissions, fuel economy and crash worthiness standards.

 

In Canada too? I thought it was just us