p
Does Honda go along with this stupidity?
If so, Toyota, here I come.
I will not buy any vehicle made by the UAW.
EVs, especially hybrids, are going to make up an increasing percentage of the vehicles on the road. Hybrids are the most practical and can make a significant market penetration.
There are just some segments of the market that EVs and even hybrids cannot meet the needs.
Toyota makes a great vehicle - I have two of them (older) and if I buy a truck it will probably be a Toyota.
I could sure go for a fresh model of the 1969 Volkswagon bug, or van, or both, or a choice of one of the other cheap cars that used to be on the market.
I just want a simple, cheap car, pay a few thousand, start it and go, roll up the windows, get out to raise the antennae, replace the water pump myself.
I own 2 Chevy Volt plug in hybrids. Been great cars, but they are like a screwdriver to me, they just get a job done. All my fun cars are gas powered and But changing all production at once to electric cars without substantially changing our power grid seems like a terrible idea. If I saw nuclear power plants being built and new dams being built I would feel better about this.
The American way of doing this would be to make them available enough to satiate demand. I would even accept some government push, in the way of gas taxes. But mandating that no more gas motors be built is draconian and bound to be an expensive failure.
Toyoda is correct - these aren't 'electric' cars - they're BATTERY cars...
Toyota is still working on new technology. I hope the ICE never goes away. But maybe hydrogen powered vehicles will have a place, and not as an inefficient money pit like EV’s.
Once again, Toyota will kick the stuffings out of US automakers.
And not only that, but an EV with a kill switch.
Mess up your social credit score, and guess what?
It's a "fad" that will subside in 7-10yrs, and the worldwide automakers will be stuck with TRILLIONS of dollars in closed manufacturing plants, and enormous inventory, sitting in fields.
EV's started in 1895 and went out in 2015, pushed to extinction by Stanley Steamer etc steam-powered vehicles, and Ford's Model As, plus Duryea and other mfgrs.
“What’s sadder still is that the Japanese seem to understand American car buyers better than the execs in Detroit. Honda and Toyota were the first to recognize that people wanted more fuel-efficient cars when gas prices more than tripled in the 1970s.”
Wrong. Toyota and Honda ONLY made small fuel efficient vehicles at that time. American car makers made both gas hog luxo-boats, gas-hungry muscle cars AND small fuel efficient cars. Mavericks, Pintos, Vegas, Novas were all in production then.
If fact, Ford introduced the Falcon in 1960 model year and Chevy had the Corvair at the same time. A decade and a half before the energy crisis of 1974
The next and perhaps final vehicles will most likely be Toyota products. I have bought American for nearly 60 years for the reasons given by the author but no more.
Toyota builds a consistently quality product. My sister and BIL have driven them for a long time and just keep buying the same brand for the reason of quality, dependability and performance. An old Tacoma pickup is just about as good, maybe better, than a new one.
what is a toyoda?
Both Ford and GM are in deep financial trouble and continue to lose market share. Neither can produce EV’s that are competitive
The author made one glaring error. Tesla is an American car company and is the world leader in electric vehicle car sales.
The author again misses the point. An electric vehicle can’t be stranded in in the middle of no where if it doesn’t go there.
the transition to all EV will take longer than to realize the folly of it and used gas guzzlers will be available all throughout the fluster cluck that is coming.
Ford will go along at first, then see the folly quicker as their f150 line of EVs will fail quicker.
I will own only Chevrolet or GM short box pick up trucks with 4.8 liter engines 1999 to 2005.
Shortly after that they stopped making real trucks.
But I have owned one of these for the past 21 years , know how to fix them, and there are plenty out there to buy in good shape.
I remember the research that went into flywheel storage. There was a bus system that used flywheels to "charge up" at night, and run all day on city streets. Regenerative braking was used to extend the range. And if, for some reason, the flywheel lost all power, they had trucks that could go out and crank them up some more.
Research into hydrogen-based fuel systems, especially systems that don't require carbon, are just now getting out of the research lab and into "gas stations". For me, the exciting part was when fuel generators can use humidity in the air to extract the fuel, eliminating the need to truck fuel to the stations.
Can micro-SMRs replace a diesel generator for locomotives? The Navy has shown that reactors can work in mobile environments, as well as NASA's use of reactors on spacecraft.
Anyone still remember those articles that suggested that automobiles can be used on roads AND on rails? Once you do that, you can look to use power in the rails.
We need many solutions, not a "one thing fits all" idea.
I don’t know one person who owns an EV or wants one. Ford has lost their mind and I predict they will be bankrupt in 18-24 mos.