Featured Toyota is planning long-range battery-powered electric cars for 2020 as its hydrogen fuel cells cars

Key to real ev range is highway mileage, which is very concerned about drag which on long trips can be responsable for half of the fuel consumption. Tesla designed the S for 2010 battery technology and was shooting for an old epa 300 mile range (which it achieved). A toyota BEV in 2020 will probably be designed around whatever is available in 2018. That is probably only 70% of the volume of 2010 batteries (tesla fit 17% more battery in the same space after only 4 years).

I'm certain that impingement from the bottom is a problem, but not that big of an engineering one if you start today. Under the vehicle is the natural place for the battery for better handling and safety. Even the tesla's before the extra bracing and software change gave drivers plenty of time to safely leave the vehicle after impact.

 

....um, no - Bisco had it right . . . . . but i think it was just done in love ... horsin' around;
Drove my Prius today. WOW | Tesla Motors
maybe i just have thick skin ... but i chuckled

GM - Hyundai - Nissan - BMW - everyone's getting on board. So what, if Toyota is having to be a bit
"Late to the Party"
sometimes that can be quite the experience !!



Go Toyota, Go Go Go !!

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and who knows, you might be the best.

 

Not a Tesla, a BMW i3-REx, I also understand the 'parked' Prius problem. But I had to use a loaner BMW Series 2 and hated it ... still do ... worse than our Prius.

The Series 2 is too low, too noisy, and takes too long to move. I did drive the Prius for a day and it was easy to get in and out, quiet, and scoots from a light much nicer than the Series 2. So when offered a Gen-4 for the price of an end-lease BMW i3-REx that was an easy problem.

In five months, I've put 10,000 miles on our used, i3-REx, 2,200 on the highway, on a used car that started with 6,440 miles. The i3-REx really is a fun car especially when there is a small hole in traffic that needs filling. In the past, the Prius would just plod along and I might get an extra, stop light cycle. But something else is not going on ... wear.

My minds eye sees engine moving parts, bathed in oil, yet still wearing down the piston rings, valve stems, valve cam followers, every journaled bearing, and an equal number of parts scraping and rubbing themselves to dust. But the i3-REx scoots around town and other than the rotor bearings and fixed, step down gear, no other motive parts trying to thrash themselves into oblivion.

Yes, there is a little engine in the Rex that sat idle for until the 66th day when it announced it 'had to run.' Mostly to replenish a layer of oil over the moving parts. A little engine that lets us cruise at 65 mph, 24x7 @40 MPG. The Prius beats it on the highway at 75 mph but it can't complete at the starting and ending destinations ... where most of the miles are driven.

Bob Wilson

 

Here is a nice example how to convert ICE car (platform) into BEV and package the battery under body (VW e-UP!)


Considering how fast batteries are improving in 2020 they won't even need a massive amount of space for 40-60 kWh battery.

 

I'm amazed that 66 days is allowed to elapse in the i3-REX before starting the ICE to bath the moving parts in oil. In other car's I've owned (that got put into hibernation for the winter) there was always the concern for the oil film dropping down to the sump and the start up being without any lubrication. We always changed the oil just before storage so the bearings wouldn't be sitting in an accumulated oil/condensation mix. Don't do that and the probability of failure on wear surfaces at premature miles was measurably increased. Doesn't most of the wear occur in the first few seconds of startup?

You take long trips with a 65 MPH speed limit imposed by the car? Most of the roads I travel on between cities have a 70 MPH speed limit and, if you are doing only that, you are holding up traffic.

 

sounds like someone doesn't get out west too much - where the CA vehicle code states (to us, the majority of drivvers) ;

we all do as we please - but
just sayin' ... nothin' wrong with taking it a tad easier .... & stats continually prove it saves lives ... the old wive's tale that "someone will crash into your rear" is just BS promulgated by those who think the extra 10 minutes of time saved here & there is worth risking their self & others.
http://freakonomics.com/2010/04/02/life-and-death-in-the-fast-lane/
And that's coming from a former 1989 911 Porsche maniac.

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Never said I didn't drive easily as most of the time I'm 2-3 indicated MPH under the speed limit. But I'd wager half or more of my miles are at 70 on interstates. Just trying to understand if you actually drove a car that would only do 65. Even my 85HP 914 would do triple digits..

 

The i3 will go faster, but it can't sustain more than about 65-70 without depleting the battery.

 

There are more than one interstate trucking companies that already limit their trucks to 65-67 mph. I simply set the dynamic cruise control to 70 mph and follow them. It is also the speed I prefer to cruise in our Gen-3 Prius and former, Gen-1 Prius.

I don't fault those who think they must drive fast on the Interstate. Just it is not my way as I prefer less stress, higher MPG, and using semi-trailer trucks as camouflage. The faster traffic never even notices the Prius or BMW i3-REx when there is a 60,000 lb trailer.

I have taken I-65 a little over the speed limit when trying to get my wife to an appointment in Nashville. But I subsequently learned the best approach is to tell her the appointment time after taking away the driving time. She acts as if an appointment time is the "time to leave" as opposed the time to walk in the office.

Bob Wilson

 

if by market awareness you mean 400,000 customers paid $1,000 down payment just to get lined up for the model 3 EV - and only then was Toyota willing to FOLLOW ... ok ... then call it market awarwness.

Allow others to call it something else (chicken $h1t) if toyota boasts;
"no one's knocking on our door to build EV's"
Toyota never said the reason they weren't building EV's was because their tech skills weren't capable ... they simply claimed no one wanted them. But deposit holders (should have/could have been toyota's ! !) proved either Toyota was lying or clueless of what the (U.S. auto) market wants.
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If you make that "USA market" I am with you. We often forget that our USA grid brings amazing amounts of electrical power to our homes and offices, often 2-5x what other counties do. Minor edit but it brings me into the AMEN chorus and includes the rear wheel electrical drive, 1.5 kW AC inverter, and tow option.

Bob Wilson

 

Noted & amended !

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we don't actually know what the u.s. market wants. okay, we really do. huge gas burners. toyota makes a few.

 

Every kind of car for every kind of buyer. And soon that can be had - even from Toyota's lineup. Thank you Toyota ...

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I was 'the market' in May and chose a 2014 version of TSS-P in a car with 72 mile EV, 168 HP, rear wheel drive. It now has a 2" receiver. It has 150 mile range.

Bob Wilson

 

if you were the market, it must have been a slow month. tell me how many hybrids, phev's and bev's are being purchased as a % of total car sales vs last year, and previously. not to be negative, and gas prices will change things, but not what most people 'want'. maybe what they'll settle for.

 

2020 - I guess that means Lexus's latest ad campaign;
"Always ready - Always charged"
They're going to be winding that campaign down before then?

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