Hacker News Reader

Comment by randerson | Hacker News Reader

Surprising to see Toyota rate most favorably here. Unless you count hybrids, Toyota only sells 1 EV (the bZ4X) which has poor range and slow charging.

Just goes to show the power of branding.

View on HN

To me it reads as, "For those people looking to buy an EV, they have a favorable impression of the Toyota brand", i.e., they wish Toyota made a good EV but they'll probably end up with a Prius !

Prius buyers are pretty distinct from EV buyers. Hybrid buyers are looking for efficiency and don’t mind a clunky drive experience to pay for that efficiency. EV buyers are mostly looking for a great driving experience that you definitely wouldn’t get with a Prius, maybe a small sports car but they still want a family sedan or SUV.

Well that and this was a survey of regular consumers, not pedantic programmers who tend to fall into the premature optimization trap. Most consumers don't care about the distinction between an EV and a hybrid. This also wasn't a question about which brand they actually plan to buy from, but it does potentially indicate a willingness to pull back and pick something that is good enough (a hybrid) rather than "perfect" (an EV). It tracks with my own experience too - I have considered Tesla in the past, but a Prius Prime seems like a more sensible choice for what I need.

Yeah, that was an immediate red flag. Something's fucky here. Nobody likes the BZ4X, not even Toyota. I thought maybe they were including plugin hybrids or regenerative hybrids in with EVs (technically true but not the common usage of the word), but the report only mentions the words "plug" and "hybrid" once each, and in that context they are mentioning them separately.

I guess it's possible alot of EV likers already have a Prius or something and really like it - that was me 2 years ago, it was a great car. But I still wouldn't have said I view Toyota favourably ever since it became clear they hate electric cars, and strange to see them ranked higher than Tesla. Something seems weird.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com