Featured New emphasis on plug-in

I agree that Tesla is way in the lead regarding fast charging station infrastructure rollout. My prediction is based on the big car corporations throwing a fit when Tesla starts selling 200,000 or more Model 3s per year. I think it will take them a while to get up to the half million a year production numbers Mr. Musk wants, but when the Model 3 starts competing with the Prius in sales numbers, there is likely to be a wave of investment in fast-charging infrastructure along with more electric car development by the big companies so they don't get left behind.

 

Is the Mirai really dead? See the back cover of the March 2017 issue of Scientific American.

 

Yes, the Mirai is really dead. Samsung was running ads for the Galaxy Note 7 at the same time as it was doing recalls for that, too.

 

It's likely they paid for that ad many many months in advance, prior to Toyota pulling back on their decision to push H2 tech so hard. In fact, the ops linked article states the few hundred cars Toyota did manage to get on the road are now being recalled for some kind of defect in the platinum fuel stack. Funny thing about claiming hydrogen Autos as rocket science - because typically it takes the budget of an entire nation, if not multiple nation's governments to be able to squeeze out enough money to get space travel to work. And as governments continue to overspend, NASA budgets get hacked continuously ever download. Deja vu. As expensive as space travel is - one can do the affordability math for using that tech for retrieving groceries.
One can take a lesson from any Scientific American Ad from the one of several 1950's era mag's - where "in just 10 years" cars will be electric AND self driving;
another eja vu. We're over ½century down the road - & we're just now getting to the tech level where we can partake in these early dreamer's visions. Maybe hydrogen too ... maybe in a couple decades ... ya never know.
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The Mirai is a really cool science experiment. As such, it is definitely not dead. As a replacement for ICE vehicles, most would argue it never lived, so it can't really die.

As for rocket science, the man responsible for actually launching rockets, not to mention landing them, seems he thinks the science behind using fuel cells for cars isn't there.

 

How is the Prime doing in Japan?
PiP I believe was not too great over there.

 

Far too early... sales began there just 5 days ago.

 

Prime was originally expecting 60K yearly sales in Japan per year, prior to it being released . But they've taken that projection down. Below are the latest expectations now;

Toyota Launches New Prius PHV in Japan - Targets 2,500 Sales Monthly, 10 Million Hybrid Sales Achieved
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I never heard anything beyond year-1 plans... and that was a 60K worldwide total.

 

Inside EV's was the source of that. I would think that they got it from Toyota
Toyota Prius Prime Launch Delayed In Japan
Nothing wrong with delays. Better to get it right & late then to get it quick & messy

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Very interesting article @hill.
Wow the USA shot out of the box on hybrids, but then we fell back giving lead to Japan and now Europe, with "Other" threatening to push USA further back to 4th place. Wonder if we say total hybrids and plug-ins (not just Toyota) how it looks.

 

Please note, the blue bar is USA & Canada & Mexico.
I'm guessing adding the other manufacturers would increase the numbers 30-40%.
Adding plugins of all manufacturers would add about 50% to the North America numbers last year for Toyota hybrid numbers.

 

do we have the cheapest gas?

 

thanks. yes i was thinking of the countries in the graph.

 

And Tesla will have an advantage selling to those that want a replacement to their ICE cars. For the others, there is still plenty of sales to be had among those looking for a BEV to do all but long trip duties, while the DC charging network grows.

When the PiP came out, there was still incentives on hybrids making plug ins unattractive.

The initial projection was 30k for North America and 30k for Japan. 60k globally was also the PiP's initial projection.

Japan had strong incentives for hybrids. Then fuel prices and general auto policy favors fuel efficiency and quicker turn over of the fleet's age. Plus, they have a wide selection of hybrid models.

Diesels are starting to fall out of favor in Europe. In terms of Toyota, they may have stopped offering diesel on newer models.

The first peak for North America follows the rise and fall of gas prices, and also had the help of incentives. Gas prices started to creep back up for the second peak, but Toyota also increased their hybrid offerings here; the Prius c and v, the gen2 Camry hybrid, and then the Rav4 hybrid.

 

mentally reading ahead, i thought your message was going another direction .... but there's ANOTHER disadvantage/advantage (turns on whose dealership perspective you look at);
Whether you go to a GM or Toyota dealership - no matter how wonderful you might consider their plugin product(s) to be - many stealership sales critters try with Herculean effort to steer you away from the plugin - if they've even bothered to stock them.
"ya sure ya don't want this Chevy cruz?... make ya a sweet deal!! "
" you'd look GREAT driving this F-150/Tacoma/Silverado!!" etc
The Store that only sells plug-in's, doesn't have to face that kind of schizophrenia .
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Avoiding the protected independent dealer networks is a good enough reason to buy Tesla in my book.

 

Dealerships still get and sell the Tesla Model S - just not new ones. I've seen some in car ads. Model S from 2012-2013 are selling for $40k-60k around here, and they go fast.

 

Dealers know if they sell you a hybrid or EV they will do less service over its lifetime and that is where their profit largely comes from.