Posted on 03/20/2021 9:54:12 AM PDT by bitt
Depending on how and when you count, Japan’s Toyota is the world’s largest automaker. According to Wheels, Toyota and Volkswagen vie for the title of the world’s largest, with each taking the crown from the other as the market moves. That’s including Volkswagen’s inherent advantage of sporting 12 brands versus Toyota’s four. Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bugatti, and Bentley are included in the Volkswagen brand family.
GM, America’s largest automaker, is about half Toyota’s size thanks to its 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring. Toyota is actually a major car manufacturer in the United States; in 2016 it made about 81% of the cars it sold in the U.S. right here in its nearly half a dozen American plants. If you’re driving a Tundra, RAV4, Camry, or Corolla it was probably American-made in a red state. Toyota was among the first to introduce gas-electric hybrid cars into the market, with the Prius twenty years ago. It hasn’t been afraid to change the car game.
All of this is to point out that Toyota understands both the car market and the infrastructure that supports it perhaps better than any other manufacturer on the planet. It hasn’t grown its footprint through acquisitions, as Volkswagen has, and it hasn’t undergone bankruptcy and bailout as GM has. Toyota has grown by building reliable cars for decades.
When Toyota offers an opinion on the car market, it’s probably worth listening to. This week, Toyota reiterated an opinion it has offered before. That opinion is straightforward: The world is not yet ready to support a fully electric auto fleet.
Toyota’s head of energy and environmental research Robert Wimmer testified before the Senate this week, and said: “If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, .
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
your auto batteries are dying from parasitic draw from all the onboard electronics, not from lack of use per se ... modern autos should be connected to trickle chargers when not in driven at least once a week ... that’ll keep your batteries viable for years ... trickle chargers will also keep the small batteries in lawn tractors, snow machines, four wheelers and such viable for many years as well ...
“Fuel consumption off road can be 2 -3 times greater than pavement usage.”
Reminds me of the time I was riding out of a long steep canyon on a dirt road with a friend in his big block Chevy pickup. We were hauling three horses in a trailer, his fuel calculator said 2 mpg and the tank read really close to MT.
Trump didn’t lose the election. The end.
I’m not sure how workable the mileage tax is going to be in the near term. I’m not even sure it’s an ideal solution anyway.
The battery that powers a car isn’t like the one that starts your car and can be changed out at the Sears Automotive Center.
Actually, I think that's something that can only happen when you have affluent, lazy people with absolutely ZERO survival skills living in suburban settings.
Those early vehicles were not very complex, and the batteries would obviously be far smaller to operate them. Heck — they were probably comparable to what you’d have on a moped today.
“It’s not about the environment at all. It’s all about restricting the freedom to travel and live a free life”
Younger mush heads (large percentage of Electric Buyers) don’t see it that way. Group think and woke acceptance is where it’s at. Monumental failure of Parenting.
I am glad I am getting old and will die before I have to make the conversion.
For all its flaws, a system of toll roads makes the most sense if the toll collection can be done without impacting the operation of the roadway. I honestly think that's going to be the way of the future: you'll pay tolls to use roads that give you certain advantages in efficiency (higher speed limits, heavier weight limits for trucks, etc.).
EVs aren’t for everyone in all situations. Neither are gas cars.
Most of the pile-on naysayers are using obsolete objections. Most of the rest are outliers.
Similar arguments happened against digital technology (too expensive, low resolution, like physical media, etc). Then in one year flat customers switched en masse, and the likes of Kodak (where I worked at the time) seemingly folded overnight.
Whatever the objection, modern EVs are ready to go >300 miles every morning, have very little maintenance, and cost ~1/4 per mile. They are quiet, smooth, have incredible acceleration, and are beginning to literally drive themselves. Object however you like, a whole lot of people are about to decide at once that’s better than gas cars.
I have a 2019 Leaf with 226 mile range. Had it for over 20 months, and like it. I'm in South SF, SF Bay Area. Weather is always mild and no snow so I don't worry about freezing or hot temps on the battery. I chose the Leaf to supplement my other cars (truck and sports cars), for local driving. Now it's my go-to car for most driving in the Bay Area. I've taken it on 100 mile trips (each way) without problem. There are plenty of recharge stations in the Bay Area but I rarely use them, preferring to charge at home once every couple weeks.
I really think it's the best of both worlds to have an EV and an ICE car, I can afford it. If all you do is local driving, then an EV is good. If you travel frequently then a hybrid is good - that's my daughter's only car, an Altima hybrid, and all she can afford is one car. I don't think ICE cars are ever going away, and will always outnumber EV's, perhaps 3 to 1. But EV's are good for city driving.
Electric cars are not efficient enough or cost effective enough to use.
The electricity is generated and then transmitted to a charging station. All that eats up power. Compare it to a traditional ICE, and it is pretty bad
>>I have a 2019 Leaf with 226 mile range.<<
thanx for that. That’s a great range. It would do me well in the summer...not so much winter - 40 miles west of Chicago.
Thanks again.
Obviously vehicles are much more complicated, especially since the invention of the semiconductor and the subsequent advent of solid state technology. But, the topic is battery storage. Batteries have evolved and improved no doubt. But, they’re still lacking in range, recharge capability, cost, etc. the world has been waiting for “the big breakthrough” in battery technology for one hundred years and is still waiting, waiting, waiting...😉
What people don’t get is that we are entering a golden age of automobile transportation because there are coming three kinds of engines vying for market share: traditional ICE internal combustion engine cars, electric cars, and lastly hydrogen cars. Hydrogen car fleets are currently small, but investment in these vehicles is rising rapidly and hydrogen vehicle companies stock prices have been rising rapidly
The wonder of it will be that these three different kinds of vehicles are competing for market share—which will drive down costs for consumers around the world.
I don’t think that the demise of ICE engines are a forgone conclusion. All they have to do is make them burn very clean and mainstream some form of wankel rotary engines to boost their mpg to 50-100 mpg for all automobiles.
Musk did a good job of stating the problem with hydrogen engines. And Musk is pushing electric cars ahead quickly—But a lot of money and talent is also pouring into hydrogen. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/21/musk-calls-hydrogen-fuel-cells-stupid-but-tech-may-threaten-tesla.html
Who benefits from all this competition?
Consumers all over the world.
We are entering a golden age of transportation.
A military launches a "Pearl Harbor" attack and your car is not charged. A tsunami is coming and your car is not charged. Your husband is severely injured working on something at home and your car is not charged. Last of all, are police cars, SWAT team or other vehicles used to enforce the law against a public rejecting electric vehicles going to be electric?
Where are you that has the above. Plus, what is considered "fast charging"? I keep reading it's about 2 hours.
Texas dark freeze was a couple of days. Can’t use your car for a couple of days, deal with it. The other 362 days present no problem.
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