Toyota has literally ceded their entire hybrid advantage by doing jack shit when it comes to EVs. If they’d even created a new line of EVs while keeping their ICE legends like the Corolla and Camry for now, they’d get the best of both worlds.
Toyota’s are legendary for their reliability and they’ve earned that. By having not a single EV to offer, they’re losing a ton of business. I know I certainly would’ve bought one of theirs but had to go elsewhere.
It's exactly because they put longevity and dependability first that they aren't currently competing in the EV market much. And where they do they put weird one off names on the car. Lithium batteries wear out faster than is acceptable for Toyota. That's why they are literally inventing new solid state batteries that live up to people's expectations of Toyota before committing to EVs. That's why I'm holding off on EVs. I only buy Toyotas because of the dependability and longevity, so I only want an EV once Toyota is willing to release a Camry, RAV4 or 4Runner ev. Until then the hybrids will do.
So why did they make a RAV4 EV, then stop in 2014?
Replacing the battery at 100k miles as scheduled maintenance solves that problem. I had to change my Prius’ hybrid battery at 150k. Toyota can build a 200k mile reliable car and if the fuel source isn’t up to that standard, make it easily serviceable so it is part of routine scheduled maintenance.
The fact that every automaker except them and Honda have put out compelling and competitive EVs says a lot. I love Toyotas and strongly would’ve bought another. But my readiness to go electric didn’t line up with the 15 years Toyota has squandered to have something to sell me.
Maybe when I’m ready for another car in the next decade they’ll be ready. Until then, they lost out on my business by no fault of my own. I’m not buying another gas car.
Wonder what ludicrous range will get folks to buy an EV for their 20 miles of total driving in a day
I drive about 90 miles in a regular work day, up to 150miles to 250miles at least once a week throughout the summer.
I would maybe feel comfortable once the ranges reach double that to make sure I can get there and back if I don't quite have a full charge, so 500 miles is probably my minimum requirement just so I can do my job.
You don't need all the extra range if you have charging network coverage to bail you out, though. If you could just stop for 20 minutes and add two hundred miles whenever you needed to, then you only need the range to cover your regular travel. 350 miles should be fine.
My company probably won't be a fan of paying for me to sit around for 20 minutes waiting for a charge when I should be working
I can't imagine twenty minutes once a week being a huge deal.
Not all of us are living in and near a city. Those properties are very expensive, and becoming less affordable each year. For those of us with longer commutes, and especially those of us with only one car and with family and friends further away, range is really important. We like to take weekend trips away, and unfortunately an EV (long range Model 3) adds about 30% travel time to the trip. I’ve rented them several times to see if it’s worth the change but it’s not. Yet. The future of battery tech is bright.
You do realise people go on holiday, right?
Yeah so do people with EVs. And people without cars in places sane enough to have public transit.
Yeah, EVs that have decent enough range for a road trip, and good luck catching a bus to a remote campsite with all your gear.
You can easily cut the range of an EV in half by towing etc, a vehicle like this will still have decent range even when towing.
How much towing and camping do you do
A few trips a year, typically. This can be a few hundred KM one way though.
And if I'm buying a brand new vehicle, I'd expect it to be able to do something my existing vehicle does.
The 1% trips drive sales. With a gas car I can drive 300 miles and then find fuel anywhere and get another 300 miles. Most of the time I don't make those long trips, but I do a few times per year.
Yeah other places have things like trains for the longer trips
Maybe ,it depends on where you are going. Trains are good where they go, but most trips don't have that option. Even in Europe try getting from Italy to Sweden, a distance - this distance is much less than how far I have to go to visit some relatives. And since i'm driving my whole family goes for one price (the cost of plane tickets for my family mean I don't fly often)
You can definitely take the train from Italy to Sweden. This summer we took the train back and forth from Denmark to Italy, with children.
Before I bought mine, I decided if there's enough coverage by charging networks then the occasional long trip doesn't matter.
If you don't have enough range to cover your regular trips, that's a pain. Those yearly trips, though? It's okay if they take a little bit longer. Stretching your legs every couple of hours makes for a nicer trip anyway.
If you add up all the times that you charge while you're asleep instead of diverting and stopping at a filling station, you probably save time overall with an EV, even with half hour charging stops on long trips.
This is a wild realization. Like I don’t need to go 300+ miles more then once a year or so but I WANT THE OPTION TO.
Realistically - give me a 100 mile range cheap good EV and let me rent something for the rare road trip.
Have you priced the cost of a rental car? It quickly is cheaper to just buy a car for allowed trips.
"extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - Car Sedan
If this is yours, walk taller today. Great work.
Can you explain it? I don't understand the joke.
The quote is by Carl Sagan, sedan is a kind of car.
Okay. I'll check it out when it is available.
I wonder how many will be left buying new internal combustion engine cars in 2030?
charging an ev with electricity produced through a fossil fuel plant is just a gas car with extra steps. also the price tag of 40k$ isn't really enticing, especially when the car isn't eco-friendly.
Where energy is produced isn’t the same problem as emissions by vehicles. EVs aren’t meant to address emissions of power production, they’re meant to reduce demand for fossil fuels to aide in shifting to carbon neutral alternatives.
$40k for a new car is on par for their ICE offerings, especially something like a 4Runner
they’re meant to reduce demand for fossil fuels to aide in shifting to carbon neutral alternatives.
that way i ll keep rocking my 10k$ mk6 diesel running without dpf or adblue from the other side of the planet, until a carbon neutral alternative is figured out
It’s great news. Sadly Toyota has been a laggard and opposed electric cars until they can clear their hybrid line…
Step 1 make hybrid Step 2 sell aggressively and push back against full electric vehicle manufacturing Step 3 ??? Step 4 profit
Then go back and sell the electric vehicles and embrace your consumer fanbase on how you have pivoted to being a environmentally loving and caring corporation… aaaah so warm and fuzzy
Come back to me when it's 1200km/800mi
Damn... You drive that long without stopping for breaks?
When you're out in the bush. You stop when you want, the problem is finding a ~~petrol~~ charging station.
Why does it matter if it charges from 10 to 80% in 20mins? Seems a bit arbitrary. Why not give us the time to charge to 100%? Does the last 20% take longer or something?
Thanks! To be honest I never really paid attention to charging much, just plugged it in every night and left it at that.
Which is what people usually do with EVs, funnily enough.
Exactly, charging 80-100 is much slower than 0-80.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 both currently advertise charging from 10%-80% in 18 minutes (under ideal conditions). Charging from 10%-100% takes around 50 minutes (under ideal conditions).
So 10%-80% in 18 minutes, and 80%-100% in 32 minutes. So if you need to go far, it's also quicker to charge to 80%, go as far as you can and then charge to 80% again.
It's also important to note that charging to 100% puts much more wear and strain on the battery, so if you want your battery to keep it's capacity for many years, you should avoid charging beyond 80.
Yes. There's chemistry and physics reasons but primarily it's to protect the battery from overheating and prolonging the life of the battery. Same applies for your phone or laptop battery.