Toyota got mocked for rejecting EV hype – not anymore
fortune.com
fortune.com
When measured against that criteria, how well does Tesla actually stand up? Outside of tech and car enthusiasts, people view cars as a tool that gets them from place to place. I don’t care if it’s an EV if it’s more expensive, less reliable and a hassle. I don’t care about self driving features and don’t want my life to revolve around a form of transportation.
> Out of the 8.9 million barrels of gasoline consumed daily in the U.S. on average, only 1.8 million gallons, or approximately 20 percent, actually propel an internal combustion vehicle forward. The other 80 percent is wasted on heat and parasitic auxiliary components that draw away energy. As the world begins its shift to EV proliferattion, the good news is electric vehicles are far more energy efficient on the road. [0]
Meanwhile, EVs start at around 77% energy efficiency and go up from there.
This alone is why EVs will take over mobility.
[0] https://www.motortrend.com/news/evs-more-efficient-than-inte...
An expensive solution is better than no solution, especially when the problem being solved is potentially existential.
That's the chief problem EVs are trying to address, not reliability or cost.
The average consumer doesn't care about those things. She cares about whether her gas prices are cutting into her budget though, and that's the problem that EVs are solving for her.
Only because the externality is unpriced - we all have to bear the cost of her tailpipe emissions, whether we want to or not. In markets where fuel taxes are anywhere near the actual cost of the externality, EVs have a markedly lower TCO.
EVs are a textbook case in falling in love with a solution, not the problem. The focus should be on producing an efficient, reliable and cost effective _public transit systems_ that are widely accessible to as many people as possible.
Many rural areas continue to provide real value. So we're only too happy to accommodate them.
But the suburbs? Not so much.
Changing zoning laws so that there is more density would shift demand to mass transit.
even this late into the game Toyota is at a significant advantage compared to most EV groups : they have the whole 'vehicle' thing just-about mastered, they have significant production capability, and they've been dabbling with electric technologies just about longer than anyone aside from GM.
Meanwhile BYD and Tesla are still struggling with body panel fit-and-finish, delivery, repair turnaround, parts availability and numerous small QC problems.
Offering an electric drivetrain is many times easier than fixing those other problems; Toyota should know -- they've been chasing those same problems and squashing them since 1935.
Toyota still makes excellent cars, just when EV, the range is not competitive.
What is Toyota doing on the battery front? It should be a multi-billion investment. I realize that the energy story is complicated in Japan, but they are a global brand.
You’ve just described a bicycle.
Like ostriches hiding from the threat, their heads are buried deeply in the sand.
Not sure how the solid state bet is going to play out but so far their hybrid strategy is working quite well. Their hybrids are selling out before they even leave the factory. It makes sense because they have a huge reputation for reliability and are sometimes the only hybrid offering in some segments like minivans and large three row SUVs.
Other manufacturers have bet on developing platforms using current battery tech but sales of current gen EVs seem to have stalled.
Customers are thinking rationally. You can either buy a current gen EV and deal with the depreciation or buy a hybrid and keep it until EVs mature and it's time to switch.
Have they? I've seen this repeated a few times but all the various articles[1][2] I can find that say anything about this are saying that the growth rate slowed slightly, probably due to interest rate rises, but not that sales have dipped or even plateaued overall.
The main decreases seem to be driven by specific models declining[3] but otherwise the industry is healthy.
[1]: https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1327-janu...
[2]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-09/tesla-rak...
[3]: https://www.carscoops.com/2024/02/fords-ev-sales-drop-11-whi...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/business/fords-f150-light...
Reading that I was struck by how often they defer to dealers. My understanding is that dealers don't like EV's because it cuts their lucrative repair profits. If the dealers won't sell the EV's then it looks like demand has collapsed. But maybe it's just that the dealers are not pushing the EV's. It seems very suspicious that three months ago EV sales were booming and now they are not, for all brands simultaneously. I suspect a propaganda campaign.
It also seems that Ford's mileage estimator doesn't take into account temperature and they have not added a heat pump to the battery to optimize its temperature. So it is no wonder owners are surprised when the range meter drops by 70 miles when they drive 35 miles.
But that would not have mattered if they kept making the same kind of mistakes. Having very unreliable range is a huge problem in any vehicle.
Generally speaking, EV sales continue to grow, so it would seem this is a Ford-specific issue and it's helpful to look at the reason why Ford's getting it wrong.
In a way, the focus on hydrogen fuel cells is smart; they can in the meantime have their whole hybrid line benefit from any battery tech improvements and slowly build out a decent fueling network.
Unfortunately there may become a slight sunk cost thing around chargers in your home and reuse of those as the first few generations of EVs begin to get replaced. If FCEVs are for sale but you already have a charger in your house that is otherwise gonna go to waste, and you can "refuel" at home, what's the compelling case to buy a new car using a fuel cell?
This praise comes from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that does not support alternatives to reliance on the oil industry.
At the very least they have several articles on their site supporting nuclear energy.
https://www.heritage.org/energy/commentary/time-bring-nuclea...
This is literally the second sentence of that article.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/triple-nuclear-power-cop28
Of course, this is just one opinion battling another.
Back in the day luddites also pointed out the lack of gasoline infrastructure. A horse is much less annoying obviously.
I can get behind the "digitalization" and "connected cars" opinions.
For example, tesla has removed (almost) all dedicated controls and put everything on a touchscreen.
On the latest cars, it has no shift lever (it guesses), no turn signal stalk (it is a touchpad on steering wheel that moves) and more mess. headlights, horn, defrost, climate controls, entertainment system need dedicated controls for muscle memory, instead they are difficult to control and make you a worse driver.
the connected car thing? You should be able to disconnect or firewall your car. Nope.
That said, just want to point out a couple of things that I don't think are true.
> it has no shift lever (it guesses)
There are shift buttons up near the rear mirror on Tesla's latest two vehicles (truck and highland).
> it is a touchpad on steering wheel that moves
I think they're actually real buttons. Still not a stalk though. They're even putting in a steering wheel horn on new models too.
I think I would still have an issue despite bringing some of these things back. I doubt consumers will have any control over this in the near future though, and learn to deal with it :/
Regarding iphone flashlight, every time i try to click on it, it moves right above as if i'm trying to unlock it. Set the triple back-tap option which works 1/10th of the time.
Toyota cashes in on booming hybrid sales