Toyota CEO says moving to all EVs would leave some customers behind
wsj.com
wsj.com
But even if it's completely clean energy, why should become reliant in a single form of powering vehicles? It makes no sense. I'm a fan of Toyota's offering of hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Imo it would make more sense to have most cars switch to hybrids, since it'll take many years for infrastructure for full EVs to be widespread, than just keep pushing for this all or nothing approach.
But agree with the other commenter, Toyota needs to step up its game in EVs to be able to compete in the current environment.
Electricity is optionality. Electricity can be generated from a vast number of sources. Coal, wood, natural gas, nuke, hydro, PV, wind, waves, geothermal, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen turbine, four mules turning a crank… Even burning diesel or gasoline to charge an EV can be more efficient than burning it in an engine in a vehicle, because the generator can be run at its optimal RPM 100% of the time, and doesn't need a complicated (& lossy) transmission.
The article paints a different picture than the article's own headline....
I might be the one 'left' behind. The current EV's in the market are all spyware [1](sending gps location), and can be shut off by remote control [2](like stolen tesla's in ukraine).
Same case is for petrol/diesel powered cars but right now I can buy toned down petrol car version (cheapest one in the lineup) which does not contain any spyware and has buttons and knobs to control AC, Radio, Volume etc
[1]https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2022/07/27/who-is-collec... [2]https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/01/europe/russia-farm-vehicl... (not really EV tesla but diesel powered John Deere tractors, but pretty much same case) [3]https://electrek.co/2022/07/26/tesla-ransom-customer-over-80...
People are seriously downplaying how massive this investment is going to be in infrastructure. This isn't like building highways across farmlands in the 1950s.
These are already-built apartment buildings where the property owners are wary of doing minimal investments in their properties combined with already strain grids. Not to mention every single gov project is 10yrs late and 4x the initial cost.
Or do you mean your local/federal government is going to give massive subsidies to one of the largest infrastructure projects on private property in history? And get this done in a decade?
My building was made in 2012 and I walked around counting the number of A/C outlets, there was about one for every 25-30 cars. And those are standard outlets.
Go to places like Boston, where you will find plenty of apartments where your unit still might only have 60A electric service -- if not 40A (I've seen plenty)! You'll find complexes built of multiple 4-6 unit buildings, built 70+ years ago (if not 100+), with dozens of units like that. We're talking places with natural gas hotbox clothes dryers that were installed 30 years ago! Places still with lead paint. So long as someone is still renting them, they won't do anything.
This is in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, which is currently undergoing a severe housing crisis.
They seem to have little issue justifying major upgrades inside the apartments themselves.
> Or do you mean your local/federal government is going to give massive subsidies to one of the largest infrastructure projects on private property in history?
1. Hyperbole much? There have surely been more expensive such projects, even before factoring in the resulting economies of scale.
2. I can think of far worse things on which we blow our tax dollars.
> And those are standard outlets.
If you're plugged in for 8+ hours a day, standard outlets are likely all you really need - especially if your destination also has electrified outlets.
Mostly cost of materials and cost of labor, but also difficulty of apportioning costs, lack of demand, and prioritizing other things.
If I were a car company, I'd certainly make some EV only cars, Tesla showed there's a premium market there, and government policy is clearly focused. But I'd also be focused on making a lot of plug-in hybrids, they can fill a lot of niches and help pull up the cafe averages which provides design flexibility.
Speaking of design flexibility, I'd have a team looking into popular vehicle shapes from 30 years ago that vanished to find out which ones fuel efficiency standards killed (small pickups for one, maybe others?) and see if EV or PHEV can move the numbers enough to bring those back. Certainly, some old shapes are dead because people don't want them anymore, but others died of unnatural causes.
I don't see those as issues. Cost - charge for energy + x% to cover costs. Apportioning costs - usage solves this. Lack of demand - do N spaces at a time leaving space for expansion depending on usage. Prioritising - if they want tenants in 20 years, it will become a natural priority.