Featured Toyota EV market innovation

Some still do.

 

great hate speech ...thank you for that

 

having filled my car sunday before snow pacolypse I fared much better than many. today the chargers are working but people can't filll with gasoline. we did sleep in the car 2 nights, then last night stayed with a friend with power. We were lucky. shelters are full. hospitals don't have enough water. My natural gas heat didn't work because fans are electric.

The problem is they didn't winterize as reported in 2013 based on 2011 problems. I blame governor that has been power 6 out of 10 years, the legislature. and ercots board (why are 5 members out of state).

 

My first Prius mod was to install a 1.1 kW, modified sine-wave inverter and test it with our furnace and a window AC. Today, Harbor Freight sells reasonably priced inverters and cables. Lesson's learned, go with a minimum 2 kW inverter that reads out the battery draw and power. Find a place where the inverter can 'live' near the 12 V battery.

Bob Wilson

 

Some of us take contingency plans more seriously than others.

Last week here in Colorado, we had a cold spell. On the first day of that spell, I noticed my house was getting cold after the sun went down. I looked at the thermostat and the actual temperature was 4 degrees below the set temperature.

I investigated and quickly discovered the igniter in my furnace had failed. It was 12 degrees outside and it was dark.

I instituted the first phase of my emergency plan. I fired up my natural gas fireplace and turned on its fan. I also fired up my natural gas stove and stayed in the kitchen to keep an eye on it. I monitored the temperatures of the surrounding area with an infrared thermometer. There's one kid in the basement bedroom where heat from those two sources doesn't get so I got her my emergency electric heater for that room.

Over the next hour and a half, my house warmed by 3 degrees - at night, when it was 12 degrees outside.

A technician then showed up and replaced my igniter. Problem solved.

What if I hadn't had power? The fan in the gas fireplace wouldn't have worked and the stove wouldn't have automatically lit. I would have slightly turned down the fireplace to allow the area to stay at a reasonable temperature while natural convection carried the heat away. I would have lit the stove with a lighter I keep next to it. I would have brought the kid in the basement upstairs to sleep on the pullout couch. I would have connected my inverters to my Prius Prime to get the fan working in the fireplace, and to keep the fridges cold.

What if I hadn't had natural gas? I have a kerosene heater and I keep 10 gallons of kerosene available for just such an emergency - properly stored in the correct type of container.

What if I ran out of kerosene? I also have a propane heater and I would have grabbed the bottles off the grill and my spare one to keep the house warm.

Next would be sleeping in sleeping bags in the car or going to a friend's house or a family member's house.

Contingency plans - they make sense. Too many people (and deregulated agencies) don't consider planning for the edge-case so, when it happens, you end up with a disaster.

 

One of the questions of the 1980s was whether the cell phone and Cable companies were to be considered public utilities. If they were, then a certain level of service could be mandated. The logic that was applied was that legacy land-lines from the phone companies would always be there so cell phones and voice over cable did not need to be fault tolerant. They did not need to provide any specific level of service. Public utilities, as part of the civil defense system, were required to be ready for disasters.

What we have now is unregulated companies providing necessities like power and water with only profit in mind.

Ironically, AT&T is currently looking to divest the landlines in areas where it does not make a profit. They are arguing that there are cell phones to take up the slack if they stop providing landline service to an area.

 

That's not really true. FERC and NERC are still here.

 

True, NERC and FERC are there. But FERC only applies to interstate transport of power and NERC is for Nuclear plants. I believe that it's up to the states to regulate power companies inside their borders.

Dan

 

Where did you get the idea that NERC is just for nuclear? It's the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Here's their mission:

"NERC’s mission is to improve the reliability and security of the Bulk-Power System in the United States, Canada and part of Mexico."

 

My Bad. I was reading about the NRC and mistook NERC as being NRC.

I just took a look at the NERC web site to see what they are responsible for. Based on my experiences in California, Oregon and now what I see on TV for Texas, they don't seem to be doing their job.

 

god forbid any (eventual/future) Toyota EV's from doing like their hydrogen car - mediocre power, & handling, ungodly resale, so-so fueling infrastructure, & requiring more incentives (despite a high price) to stay afloat then any other Electric vehicle. No ..... most here hope that Toyota & all EV producers the very best w/their ventures.
.

 

What most people don't realize is that NERC has the ability to do things like say how much of each type of reserve you have to have, and what kinds of protection your system has to use. What it can't do is regulate the natural gas industry. The Enron thing and the current Texas thing were both problems with the natural gas system that in turn led to problems with the electric system. NERC can't do much about that sort of problem.

 

Well, aren't you glad to see that Toyota is now pushing towards more BEV and PHEV and less Hydrogen?

 

Has Toyota eaten up that many incentive vehicles - so that 2yrs from now - the $7500 will be gone?

 

That's anecdotal observation turned narrative. If you weren't aware of larger goals, it's an easy perspective to get fixated on.

Hydrogen is very much a part of Toyota's future business, but more on the commercial & industry side. Starting with small vehicles was fruitful means to refine & share tech, faster and more flexible too. After all, it's a whole lot easier to scale up than it is to scale down.

We always knew the push for electric was going to take a very long time. Reaching the masses with current cost & density limitations is still very much a barrier to mainstream success.

The market itself isn't ready anyway. We have have serious investment needed in that still, as well as educating a poorly informed consumer base.