There was mounting pressure for Akio to step down. All the media and every company thinking EV is the only way to build cars and how dare Toyota continue rolling out mostly hybrids and traditional gasoline engines because they realize that mainstream EV adoption is a long, long ways from now.

 

Reuters is a left leaning news corporation that is biased. Go straight to the horse's mouth. The fact of the matter is Akio has progressed/promoted to COB from CEO. Akio is not leaving his company his grandfather started.

TMC Announces Changes to Executive Structure | Corporate | Global Newsroom | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website


I disagree. The majority of the population don't want a BEV even though there are tax incentives to fuel the purchase of new and used BEV's, law enforcement aren't purchasing EV's and you yourself Steve don't own or lease/rent a BEV.

 

Slight correction - there's a difference between not wanting an EV, not liking what's on the market (in ways that don't make it at all impossible for what you might like to be available) and not owning one for a myriad of reasons (in Steve's case, I'm guessing the lease is a big part of it). Law enforcement agencies are using EVs, they make a ton of sense given how patrol cars are usually used. Notable exception would be extended highway pursuit vehicles... possibly... maybe... depends.

p.s. you know where this thread is heading...

 

Same reason why Toyota has never developed a proper PHEV up until RAV4 Prime or a competitive turbo engine: they were late and estimates have shown in order to catch up they need to pay up. That's the reasons why Europeans have never invested into HSG competition, they just couldn't catch up so they went straight to PHEV game instead.

 

I am the original poster. The reason I started this thread is because I friends, a wealthy older married couple, who thought they wanted a high end Electric Vehicle. The wife has a lot of tree hugger friends that she wants to fit in with!! The husband doesn't care. Anyway, they live in a condo and realized that an EV really isn't practical for them. The building has a charger, but there are always issues and it doesn't appear that they will get solved soon. And they do use (what will be) that vehicle for trips that will incur the "range anxiety" issue. So I suggested that they consider something like my new 2023RX, a 4000+ pound vehicle that that gets an amazing 36MPG, as somewhat of a "tweener" vehicle. (For reference, I learned to drive on my parents 1974 Chevy Malibu that got 8MPG in Pittsburgh with the A/C on in the summer.) Until, perhaps, the issues with EV's get ironed out. They get new vehicles every few years anyway. The response surprised me. They did have a 2nd Gen RX not too many years ago, but now, frankly as they've gotten richer, they like Audi/BMW/Mercedes...like the "feel the road" drive versus the Lexus "more floaty" ride. And they pointed out that those car makers have nothing like the high MPG hybrids that Toyota has, or they'd get that. I looked into it and they are right. It just seems odd to me that Toyota is the only one really doing much in the hybrid market. Yeah, there is the promise that we'll get to mainly all electric vehicles in the future. But the reality is that despite all the hype, they are still impractical for most and it's not likely to get "better enough" during a typical current car ownership cycle. It just seems that the high MPG hybrid makes so much sense. Hard to imagine that no one else has jumped on this bandwagon.

 

^^ if that couple wants an audi/bmw/mercedes and are concerned about fuel economy, they're not rational.

 

I get your point but somewhat disagree. You could make the same argument about Lexus.

For many it isn’t about saving money on gas. It might be a sincere concern about the environment. Or just snob-appeal virtue signaling.

The original point is that it’s odd that Toyota has no serious competitors in a segment that makes a huge amount of sense.

 

lexus has always been mostly a premium value play. 'sensible' people buy lexus. (mostly) brand-conscious people buy audi/bmw/mb.

toyota invented the hybrid business and has played both sides of fuel economy and performance with it. these days it's about fuel economy.

seems to me most other brands (esp. luxury) did it for emissions compliance (or me too) and that's it.

 

There are number of factors. Toyota has brand equity in the hybrid space. This equity is 25 years in the making when Toyota made the first Prius. Also, the hybrid segment is not as large a segment as people think and it has taken a very very long time to get the economies of scale to a point where the a manufacturer can actually make money. At first the cost vs a gas engine was far wider than it is today.

Also have to consider that gas was cheaper and more abundant in the past. So today, most western nations have very restrictive energy policies so gas is more expensive than ever before. Many nations hand carbon taxes applied and levied to gas. Toyota saw this coming.

There is a saying…when you add batteries to vehicles, you add mass, this makes a vehicle far more costly to manufacture. So hybrids mitigate this issue as hybrid doesn’t have as much added mass as the manufacturing uses less battery.

I don’t particularly like hybrids. I rather hate them to be honest. I don’t really like the experience. I’d rather just pay for gas. But..people are into them. That’s ok.

now look at the Mirai. The Mirai is today what the Prius was in 1996….Mirai in its 2nd generation, it’s better less costly to manufacture, but it gains more power and better efficiency. Toyota is quietly building brand equity in the hydrogen fuel space for those markets that will support hydrogen infrastructure. Canada just recently announced hydrogen infrastructure in New Brunswick as well as a hub in Edmonton.





 

I think car companies are in business to make profit, and they've decided that either traditional hybrids don't make enough, or are incentivized to build EV's, or just realize thats not what their customers want. Not sure why this is so hard to understand.

 

AFAIK Honda's hybrids are very efficient too: 51/44 mpg for Accord and 43/36 mpg for CRV. For comparison Camry is 44/47 and Rav4 is 41/38. And I like the way Honda does hybrid too. It directly connects the engine to the wheels for highway cruising - for everything else the engine is a generator and the wheels are driven by electric motors.

 

Chevrolet's Volt also had a direct mechanical link from IC to wheels for highway speeds.

 

Oh please. And no politics, you're a moderator you should know better than that.

Not yet, but I am seriously considering one for my next vehicle, and I am very confident that if its not my next vehicle my next one after that would be a BEV. Me not having a BEV is 100% because no BEV has been released yet that appeals to me on enough levels to get me to pull the trigger.

 

I bet you would be in one if only the EQS didn't look so undesirable.

 

Toyota is tripling down so if you want a hybrid good news they are going to make a bunch of those not EVs.

Toyota Says Data Proves EV-Only Policy Is Worse For The Planet

I tried to see the actual data not the synopsis keeps ending up behind a paywall. Doesn't matter either way just proves Toyota has zero intention on changing their strategy.