Toyota is on record saying they don’t think the grid in Japan is ready for EVs. Hybrids are a better choice for now
This is an odd rationalization on their part, seeing that Toyota sells twice as many cars in the US as in Japan. And more in China than in Japan. And there are incentives in the US for all-electric vehicles, and disincentives in China for those which are not.
It sounds to me as though somebody in some ivory tower suite has a prejudice, or made a decision, and by gosh isn’t going to let reality get in the way. Odd since Toyota was so far out front with the hybrid, but it wouldn’t be the first time a market leader bet wrong: Kodak with digital cameras, IBM with PC software, Yahoo! with search and others.
It seems to me that the least likely charging time for EVs will be in the late afternoon/early evening. Mostly it will be overnight, with some daytime charging in company parking lots or similar, largely from 8AM to 3PM. And it’s not as though we’ll wake up Tuesday and find a bazillion EV’s that weren’t there Monday. The Grid will be built out over time, just as the internet backbone was, just as cable television was, just as, well, most everything is.
Toyota is running off the track at the second turn; maybe they can recoup by the time the race is run.