Nissan and Renault sell 200k electric vehicles worldwide

The low lease rates are gone? Damn. Someone should tell Rydell Chevy. They still show leases rates as low as $179/mo.

Newspaper Specials | Rydell Chevy | Northridge, CA

All kidding aside, I'm curious how you can attack the Volt when the PIP sales dropped off the map once the HOV stickers ran out. It's like the Cowboys fans who still rooted for their team even after decades of suckage. lol

 

GM bets the farm on a one-size-fits-all approach. It doesn't result in high-volume sales as expected. And you don't see the benefit of a diverse approach? Really?

 

Reuters:

Toyota aims to replicate Prius success with fuel cell Mirai

We shall see.

 

What automaker wouldn't want success with any of their new offerings?

 

The Prius didn't have to reinvent the refueling industry...

Diversity is good. it's just too bad Toyota doesn't offer something competitive in the mean time. I guess I'll have to stick with other brands until then.

 

2020? that sounds a little slower than the prius...

 

Well, it's going to take awhile. They still haven't figured out how to charge customers for a hydrogen fill up so I bet getting hundreds of thousands of stations up and running won't happen any time soon.

Why Is Hydrogen Free To Fuel-Cell Car Drivers? Pumps Are The Problem

I wish them luck though. One days we will figure out how to make the stuff in a green way.

 

They do know how to charge customers for. It may not be the most accurate way at the moment, but retail level gasoline sales aren't adjusted for temperature either.

Stations can't charge for it now because California hasn't given them the right to do so yet by regulating a standard. And they won't as long as the price hydrogen on a sign could scare away people.

 

I agree and believe it's the price factor that ensures no one is in a hurry to set up a pricing structure. Hydrogen is pretty darn expensive.

 

Best case is that hydrogen will cost the same per mile as gasoline, but that only seems likely with natural gas reforming.

 

So Toyota says they hope to match the success of the Prius, first million cars in the first ten years.
They then say they expect to sell them in the 10s of thousands in the 2020s.

Those numbers don't match. They can't reach 1 million by 2025 unless they can sell in the 100s of thousands the 9th or tenth year.

The Leaf, on the other hand, has sold over 200,000 units worldwide in its first 4 years. I would be surprised if they don't sell another 800,000 units in the next 6.

Ah yes, but those must not really exist because "nobody" is knocking on Toyota's front door asking for EVs.

 

Even if hydrogen fuel were free (like electricity) it would still make hydrogen cars an extremely expensive proposition.

I just don't get how it's viable. Eventually the fuel companies are going to charge for the stuff and the cars are on a par with BEVs for purchase price. It just doesn't add up to me and unlikely to for the foreseeable and the point when it does become viable is probably the same time that BEVs have a 250 mile range and cost the same as a hybrid today.

Hydrogen is good for delivery trucks or taxi's or similar where frequent fill ups or high daily mileages are required.

 

i'm thinking helium clown cars. anyone know how to write a grant?

 

Given ethanol wholesale prices are proportional to energy content but retail prices outside of some midwestern states is not, I have no doubt the hydrogen wholesale-retail price will always be adjusted to keep the population of FCVs in check . . . a Potemkin fleet. But this is interesting:

Ok, we propose a fusion, powered car:

• use recently developed, desktop accelerator
• HHO generator
• layered high-energy particle and x-ray band, solar cell chambers

Our proposal is to use the HHO generator and separate out the hydrogen. Then we feed it to the desktop accelerator to make fusion energy. Then the fusion products are captured by a layered, high-energy particle and x-ray band, solar cell made of layers designed to convert the energy into electrons. Waste heat runs a Sterling engine to generate the HHO generator power:

• Input: water
• Output: helium and oxygen . . . no freezing risk

The rest is an engineering project. As for the useful clowns to sell it to . . .

Bob Wilson

 

now, how do we get the pols to cough up the millions necessary? iirc, the mafia could buy a congressman for a few thousand bucks.

 

Where did those numbers come from?

 

From Jeff's post quoting the article:

Here is the specific numbers from the article:

So since 10s of thousands of sales each year is not enough to reach 1 Million sales by 2025 (a decade from the FCV release in 2015) it seems Toyota must be wrong about their expected number of sales, or meeting the Million mark.

 

I see no goal was actually stated. It was inferred.

 

It's not unusual for a manufacturer to have high hopes for a product, to me it means they believe in it.
Remember Chevy also made predictions, and Ford C-Max & Energi were supposed to finish off the Prius L & v.

Here’s a gas station from the earliest days of the automobile. Note the horse-drawn cart. We didn’t used to have gasoline infrastructure, either.

 

So when Reuters quotes the chairman saying the will be producing tens of thousands in the 2020s, that is inferred?
Sure, that leaves lots of wiggle room. Could be anywhere from 20-99 thousand. Other than giving a lot of wiggle room, I don't see how that isn't a stated goal.