Toyota is going to still emphasize plug-in hybrids vs. all-electric vehicles.
Toyota makes the argument that it may not make sense to buy an expensive 300 mi battery for your once a year vacation road trip when a much smaller 50 mi range battery takes cares of 95% of your driving. It would be much cheaper to provide the extra range for that rare long trip with a hybrid/ICE.
You’d still be getting 95% of the emissions reductions of a pure BEV for a much lower capital cost.
Toyota is going to still emphasize plug-in hybrids vs. all-electric vehicles.
Good idea.
EVs have their place, for sure. We have one and love it, but it only works for us because we also have an ICE van. We’ve done 11k miles in the EV in 7 months. Longest trip was when I drove it home from the dealership 115 miles away. I wouldn’t take it on a long trip. Love driving it around town, though. The instant torque is addictive. 90+mpge appeals to our frugal nature*.
Our next car will be a plug-in hybrid to replace the ICE van. Hoping Toyota makes a plug-in version of the Sienna.
(* Of course, if we were really frugal, we wouldn’t have bought a brand-new EV.)
"Toyota is going to still emphasize plug-in hybrids vs. all-electric vehicles.
Good idea."
Specially if you are a Tesla investor. It will make it even harder for Toyota to catch Tesla.
I wonder when Tesla will catch Toyota in profitability, if ever? Toyota sports trailing twelve months net income of $27.6 billion, compared to Tesla $3.5 billion. Toyota isn’t standing still either, those earnings are up $8 billion over the last reported annual earnings of March 2021, so they seem to be navigating the supply chain problems just fine too.
I wonder when Tesla will catch Toyota in profitability, if ever?
Compare their margins, Gross, Operating, and Net and then compare their production growth rates. Tesla 2021 deliveries grew by 87% in 2021 while ICE deliveries shrank. Tesla should overtake Toyota before the end of the decade.
I dunno. The drumbeat on this board of why people don’t want an EV is the twin problem of range and charging time.
This board is full of old farts and Tesla is selling all it can produce. Tesla deliveries grew by 87% in 2021 from 500K to 936K. Two new giga factories are coming online this year and Shanghai capacity is being increased by 50%. That’s millions of opinions by people putting their money where their mouth is. Sounds convincing to me.
The United States Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration said that the average person drove 14,263 miles per year in 2019. That’s roughly 1,200 miles per month per driver or about 39 miles per day. By comparison, the DOT said the average annual miles was 13,476 in 2018.
This board is full of old farts and Tesla is selling all it can produce.
I resemble that! }};-D
Just did a mental survey of my spawn and their spouses plus one 18yo grandson.
They have four PEVs (one a Toyota truck that tows the fifth wheel) and one Audi ICE … this last because she (the banker) tried to buy an urgently needed (she had just moved from Vancouver) Tesla and they told her there would be a 90 day wait time. She drove the Audi off the lot a couple hours later.
Somewhat OT: That very day on the news some guy turned his Tesla’s AC on while driving on (I think) the #13 around Oakland and it caught fire! I’m afraid eldest daughter has her dad’s sense of humour as she sent me the link!
this last because she (the banker) tried to buy an urgently needed (she had just moved from Vancouver) Tesla and they told her there would be a 90 day wait time.
Like I said…
Tesla is selling all it can produce.
Of course ICE still outsell EVs but shift is happening!
That very day on the news some guy turned his Tesla’s AC on while driving on (I think) the #13 around Oakland and it caught fire!
I’m telling you, Tesla is on fire! LOL
BTW, Tesla is transitioning standard range models to LFP batteries which are much safer. The higher efficiency nickel based batteries will go into trucks and performance EVs.
BTW, Tesla is transitioning standard range models to LFP batteries which are much safer. The higher efficiency nickel based batteries will go into trucks and performance EVs.
The Captain
I don’t have a range problem, my little Nissan Micra (city car) has only done ~15,000 Km since I bought it five years ago and rarely leaves the city other than the occasional airport run. Meanwhile the closest available to the public charging station is in the industrial park over 2 Km away. The few plugs we have in our underground parking are intended for the cleaning lady’s vacuum cleaner and plugging into them would be quickly discouraged.
I tried to get the Condo association involved but our current President has her position because nobody else wants the job (including me) and she threatens to quit if anyone disagrees with her.
Really? I didn’t think the Toyota hybrid truck was quite ready yet. When did they get it?
V
His is a 2020 White five seater. I think he said they were only available in Canada at the time?
This is the fellow that owns his own fairly large company and when his parents wouldn’t fund college started a business selling fancy clocks in a Mall Kiosk. He never uses credit, like me doesn’t believe in it so cash it is. Got his big break when the US crashed in 2008 and the trade shows that wouldn’t talk to him before were suddenly calling with “C’mon down”. He is a preferred seller for several large US retail chains now. He used to rent part of an old chicken farm building as his warehouse but then bought the whole building and renovated it. Now his staff run the place and he drops in occasionally. He also creates many of his own lines, grandma gets to wander around and pick her gifts “Friends and Family” day. Of course for grandma everything is free. }};-D
Whoops, misfire unload daughter doesn’t think it is hybrid “it is big and he plays country music”, hers is a new hybrid Range Rover. I’ve never driven either of them though I did get a ride in the Range Rover. }};-@
The 11 year old granddaughter loves getting rides in the truck. She is off to get her second vaccination in about an hour.
That’s because Toyota is shamelessly trying to keep milking the 15 year old Prius tech.
More like “We already have a platform which runs on electric components, which uses gas as a backup (eliminating the ‘range anxiety’ objection), and all we have to do is put a few batteries in it and we’re good to go.”
Personally I believe that plug-in hybrids could be as large, perhaps an even larger market than pure EVs, at least for the next 10-20 years, until an EV charging structure gets baked into the country.
It’s an audacious declaration to say 95% of people drive less than 50 miles a day, especially when it’s so obviously self serving.
Never mind that it’s true. The average driver puts 12,000 miles per year on a car. That’s 32 miles a day. Clearly many people are above average, but just as clearly then, many are below even that. I’m one of them.
"More like “We already have a platform which runs on electric components, which uses gas as a backup (eliminating the ‘range anxiety’ objection), and all we have to do is put a few batteries in it and we’re good to go.”
If Toyota builds plug in hybrids with 30 miles of EV range, perhaps a bit more like 40, then hybrid buyers will run off electricity most of the time.
If they forget to charge - hey, no problem.
If the power company is struggling on a winter night, and turns off EV charging that night automatically via the charger/meter system which will be connected to the web - no problem. You’ll still get to work - might use some gas but you’ll get there.
If you go to grandma’s house 300 miles away on a holiday weekend - no nightmares of 15 cars waiting for 2 fast chargers that take 15-20 minutes a car, and slower for those that don’t take ‘fast level 3 charge’. Plus, maybe grandma lives in an apartment with street parking so no EV charging there.
Large EV batteries still cost $10,000 and up… what, the Tesla S model owner was quoted $22,000 to change his battery that had failed after 100,000 miles. Ouch.
The average driver puts 12,000 miles per year on a car. That’s 32 miles a day. Clearly many people are above average, but just as clearly then, many are below even that. I’m one of them.
Everyone can blame me for pulling the average down. I’ve owned my present car since 2018 and I’ve averaged fewer than 4,000 miles per year.
Even when I had a long (in time) commute in Los Angeles I was driving only the average 12,000.
I drive less than five miles a day, but every so often I want to drive a thousand miles to go visit my sister or a few other people. I need a car that can do both without major headaches.
I hope I’ll not need to replace my 2010 car for a few years, and I’ll hope that all the kinks have been worked out by then.
I think quite a few people are in the same boat (or the same car, anyhow), so that should affect car sales for a while.