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 ...
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It’s pretty easy to see where this is going in the US.
Subsidize electrics.
Penalize petroleums.
Hope that big wind and sleazy solar gives everybody a little juice to make it to the liquor store.
No, people are morons. And these cars are coal fueled.
BECAUSE CUTTING EVERYONE OFF, THEREBY MAKING ONE'S ABILITY TO FREELY ROAM IMPOSSIBLE IS FAR MORE INSTANTANEOUS WITH ELECTRIC VEHICLES, THAT'S WHY!!!!!
While I agree that we aren’t ready to handle a 100% electric car fleet now, there’s no question that advances in battery storage and charging time have been made in leaps and bounds in recent years.
I work with several EV manufacturers & charging companies.
The ferocious speed at which they are moving is insane.
Kia, Volkswagon, BMW, Mercedes are all in for the EV technology.
Infrastructure is a problem and it has caused major issues for Tesla where waits can be up to 2 hours in some places, and then you have to charge for 2 hours if you are very low.
This is currently being corrected, but the demand is incredible.
Having leased 3 previous EV’s I think they are awesome cars and very convenient when fuel prices are through the roof or supply sucks. I just wish politicians would let the market figure this out and not try to hijack the issue.
I am looking forward to electric cars. I think it is a great concept and love the high torque, simplicity, less moving parts, lower maintenance requirements. That said...
The market is not even close to adopting EVs on a widespread basis, and government is evil to dictate EVs long before the market is ready for it. Let the market decide and quit pushing EVs down our throats. I can’t wait to buy a good one that is fun, has good range, and charges quickly. That may not happen in my lifetime and I am OK with that. When the technology catches up with the minimum requirements, and when the infrastructure is sufficiently complete — then we can have mass EVs. We are way cart before the horse here because the government is shoving it down are throats.
All to deny plants the CO2 they need to thrive.
From what I’ve observed, an 8 yr old battery car is worthless because it’s not economical to replace the battery pack, while an 8 year old gas car is not even to its half life yet.
Wait a damn minute! This will not stand! Common sense applied? They should expect a strongly worded letter from the doom troll grrrrreta.
It’s not about the environment at all. It’s all about restricting the freedom to travel and live a free life.
Meanwhile China is buying up the world’s prime lithium deposits.
I don’t want a car that has a 250 mile range and then I have to plug in sit there like an idiot. And guess what’s gonna happen to that range when you want to do something exotic, like use the heater for the whole trip?
And how fun would that electric car be when California spends half the year in the dark, and you have idiots like Abbott and Perry giving Texas the same treatment?
Imagine the Texas dark freeze and you also can’t use your car.
If we are serious about making the transition to EVs, we should be investing in building 20 new nuclear power plants. Minimum. But it’s going to be a bumpy road. Trump lost the election and Democrats are in control of three branches. So the debate is over.
“there’s no question that advances in battery storage and charging time have been made in leaps and bounds in recent years.”
Along with a need for ripping open huge mines for rare earths and copper to build these rolling eco-nightmares.
I can just hear some True Believer enviro-zealot screaming that “revolutionary science” will quickly overcome those “minor” obstacles....
“I think they are awesome cars and very convenient when fuel prices are through the roof or supply sucks.”
And I like to play the “predict the future” game. Think the suits are just going to watch us go to cheap electricity and skip gasoline and say “man, they sure outsmarted us this time, guess we will just go broke”.
No, they’ll sodomize us on electricity rates and taxes.
Earth First!
(we’ll strip mine the other planets later)
Not completely worthless.
That 8 year old car battery will yield 800-1000 .38 caliber bullets.
Thomas Dolby should release a new song: “Coal Power.”
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