A petition to Toyota to build electric vehicles

But the Prius didn't start with large numbers.

Toyota was the last hold out to not roll the tax credits and other incentives into the lease price. Nissan and GM did this from the beginning to get their high cost cars out to the public and on the roads with cheap leases. The eQ was never offered for sale because Toyota realized no one would buy it at their price with its range with all the competition.

Nissan and Tesla are the only companies serious about making and selling a BEV. GM might be there with the upcoming Sonic EV. Depends on how they handle it. Most of the others are in the game just in case, and to not be caught with nothing like they did with hybrids. Toyota and Fiat simply don't want to sell a plug in car.

 

All the above said, it's hard to part with 55 MPG now. So I just drive it and grumble away.

bisco, isn't BMW serious about selling the i3?

 

prius was someone's brainchild at toyota. that was reason enough to build it. anyone can build a bev. toyota already has, and has no interest at the current time, in the current climate, with the current potential sales.

 

Speaking of cars, there is a Model you can have right now, I am not sure of the Model year, but as for a Plug-In Model, you gonna have to wait!

 

Yes yes, but people at toyota sound a lot like people at gm when gm was talking about hybrids. The head of gm at the time rick wagoner has now admitted the mistake which was very obvious for many at the time, and certainly through hind sight.

So we have to ask? Why come up with this complete bs at toyota that "no one has asked for electric cars?", then we see that they are promoting one for china Why have obviously false anti-plug-in propaganda up on the Lexus web site?

No problem if toyota just said, we don't want to build one, we get a higher profit margin from the tundra and highlander. It is the false anti-EV pr, while hyping fcv that is irritating. I'm sure after this petition it will be difficult for toyota to bring out some of the anti-Ev lines again. The biggest thing will be if people in california stand up and don't buy the fcv until the plug-in hate ends, or if they are smart ever.

 

They are herd animals, and very rarely have independent senses of style. They want what they know, and what someone else tells them is pretty.

 

well, i can't argue that some here are irritated. i guess they have their reasons and we'll never know them most likely. but i don't think it's like gm at all, and in fact, in hindsight, it doesn't really look like gm missed any boats, they just managed themselves into a hole they couldn't get out of when the economic downturn came. you don't need any alternative fuel cars to be a successful automaker, as long as you can meet cafe.

 

According to Wagoner it had more to do with GM's image and attitude not profit margin when it came to the hybrids. The negative PR hurt sales of other cars and the attitude probably hurt their development of other cars. Mr Wagoner did manage to spend $2.5B on fcv. A lot of the sting, or negative PR, wouldn't have happened if Mr. Lutz and Mr. Wagoner hadn't actively bashed hybrid technology. Simply silence on the issue would have been much better, than GM's foot in mouth disease. R&D for fuel efficient vehicles sufferened tremendously under Wagoners tenure.

 

It was held to a limited production back then too.

 

gm also thought their image would take a hit, (and thus sales) if they filed bankruptcy, but that didn't happen either. even this ignition switch thing, has just been a blip on the radar.

 

therein lies the crux of Toyota's issue . . . they claim that the profits aren't good enough for EV's right now ... but they want California taxpayers to help pick up a substantial part of their hydrogen experiment losses - but does Toyota even have the decency to create hydrogen car-building jobs here in CA after we're forced to absorb their R&D costs? No. They won't even build the Prius in the U.S. much less fool cell. Either BOTH technologies are impractical or neither are. Tesla has already answered that mystery ...
.

 

Actually, several automakers have severely restricted the availability and inventory of the plug in cars they sell, especially Toyota. The Prius Plug In was not even available in most of New England this entire year, and many sales staff try to steer people interested in it into a gas only hybrid.

I firmly believe that Toyota could have outsold all other brands, perhaps combined, despite their inferior plug in offering, if they had made even a basic effort to stock, promote, and actually sell the car. Instead folks got duped into another gas hybrid, or visited their local Chevy dealer and never looked back.

 

When I bought my 2004 Prius I assumed it was Toyota's half step to an all electric vehicle. I was surprised that others came out with BEV but not Toyota. They are going another direction. They seem to think that BEV's are not the way. The don't seem to be pushing the idea of plug ins much. Their eggs are all in the fuel cell. They may be right!

 

I think that's partly because most people still aren't aware of the financial and convenience benefits of driving electric (not to mention enjoyment), which if they did, for many might actually outweigh the perceived issues with limited range and/or charging time.

Or to flip it around, people have been accustomed to the high costs and required inconveniences of driving gasoline only cars as a required part of modern life ...and so can't imagine what they are missing.

 

that's not toyota, that's the dealers. there were plenty of pips in the boston metro area until they started running out of '14's a while ago. as far as popularity, you couldn't give them a way a year ago, and as far as inferior, them's fighting' words!

 

if this were true, nissan would be giving demo's like they were going out of style, and leaf's would be selling like hotcakes.

 

yeah, like you wouldn't take the money if they forced it on you.

 

what i mean is, they want a sports car, an suv, a sedan, a coupe, a crossover, they want options, they don't want a leaf.

 

I'm still here, and I still have my 2012 Toyota PIP. My wife and I have four cars, one too many. I considered selling my PIP, but decided it's too good in all regards (other than EV mileage) to get rid of. So, I've targeted one of wifey's cars for resell. My BMW 13 (BEV) is fantastic and driving all EV is incredible. No regret making the move to another vehicle sooner than I planned.

 

i saw an i3 at whole foods, nice looking car!