Toyota has been dragging their feet on new vehicle technology...

EVs are not the future, they are a transition to something better with greater fuel density at an affordable cost down the road. Toyota is working that way balancing economic forces. Regardless, I love my PRIME.

 

The title should be "Clever Toyota TV ad triggers Tesla fan boys"

 

Science illiteracy is part of America's problem....that's why we like to fight so hard based on politics. The article tries to say science-educated people know EV is the future...in other words, ad honinem attack on non EV advocates.

 

The deal is there are some who are growing desperate to spin a narrative.

They see their own favorite approach failing and don't like to see the engineering hidden within vehicles Toyota has delivered.

Advancements like the heat-pump and carbon‐fiber provide a distinct edge that antagonists hope will not get noticed I'd there's enough rhetoric to confuse & distract.

Articles like this confirm Toyota is making others nervous.

 

last week, toyota said they were making a big investment in bev's

 

The BEV thread(I think they were all merged)
More details about Toyota's New BEV plans | PriusChat

Mostly just a press release, with some concept drawings. Toyota is pushing up the release dates, but sounds like China is still the priority.

 

That attempt at a narrative reinforces what has been pointed out about Toyota's advances. They are methodical steps to bring forward the entire fleet without disruption to dealer or consumer. Antagonists spin that as not taking risk... or in this case, calling it a stick in the mud... to portray the image of no progress.

It's all quite amusing, the story of the tortoise and the hare playing out before our eyes. That slow & steady is what wins. It's not a race to simply cross the finish line first. Winning is finding a way to bring forward the entire fleet. All the refinements we see with for PHEV is setting that stage for EV.

In other words, the rest of us aren't taking the bait.

 

china is the priority for everyone. i don't believe we'll see many bev models from any manufacturer in the u.s. for a long time. except tesla and except california

 

Toyota fanboys vs. Tesla fanboy (and Wth he's still here?), round n+1.

 

I'd say the home teams have priority for Europe. VW is focusing there and China first. With cheaper fuel, and greater distances driven, they and others seem to think the US isn't worth their limited battery supplies at this time.

 

I would agree Toyota has been dragging their feet and been distracted from their core business model. In the past 5 years at the Toyota plant we worked at they were constantly bringing in Hyundai models to disassemble and study.

They would bring in Hyundai models for the employees to view and point out how we were being beat at the price point for the car and some of the technology aspects. They also warned us we were being passed up from a quality standpoint by some of the other automakers.

Recently they have begun investing heavily in our plant to catch up with the competition as to quality and car assembly cost.

The buzzword now is that we are to become a Mobility company that fulfills societies changing needs for different modes of transportation.

Toyota is a great, successful company that has their fingers in many pies. In Japan we got to tour a plant that was building Toyota modular homes for Japan. I say modular but they were permanent beautiful dwellings that would be shipped in parts and assembled on location. They also build plc's and have interest in robot manufacturers.

They have many business interest and coupled with their push for globalization of their car manufacturing arm they are stressing their resources. I am positive they will successfully navigate this challenge but I would agree Toyota took their eye off the ball and now has some serious catching up to do. I hope with their experience and customer first philosophy that they will not only catch up but pass the other manufacturers.

 

Because that statement is largely false.
As long as most of our electricity is still made by burning fossil fuels of some kind, we are gaining very little in "sustainability".

The availability of renewable energy must keep pace with the availability of devices (vehicles) to USE it.
Right now, the energy supply is WAY behind.
The only incentive that seems to work is COST.......and oil and coal is still cheap.

AND......some of the coal regulations are about to be relaxed again.
NOT a good sign.

 

It's refreshing to see how you work so desperately to avoid acknowledgement and minimize what Toyota is striving to deliver... well thought out solutions for the masses. 152 horsepower of EV propulsion from the traction-motor currently being used in Mirai is yet another example.

Too bad if you don't like the approach. A stack is a stack. Improvement to lithium chemistry will benefit every recipient. The cost simply isn't there yet, which is why limited rollout in the meantime is just fine. Rushing to market, like GM did, accomplished what?

 

A small percentage of our oil comes from OPEC. Imports from OPEC - 46M barrels in Mar 2019, vs 164M from other sources. The US produced 370M barrels the same month.

 

I'm curious... how do you define sustainability in anything as ephemeral as a car?

50 year parts & software support commitment? 100 years?

or are you settling for the same 12 years as the average gasser SUV?