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> Both Toyota and Honda ventured into hybrids and battery technology long before Tesla was founded. Exactly! So how come they are so far behind. If they had
by imron 8y ago
> Both Toyota and Honda ventured into hybrids and battery technology long before Tesla was founded.
Exactly! So how come they are so far behind. If they had been serious about it, they could be far ahead of where Tesla is now, instead, the opposite is true.
> I don't see how those Japanese companies can be accused of sitting on technology
The 'sitting on it' was in reference to the post I was replied to which was talking about a hypothetical situation where these companies had Tesla's technology, and the thing is, they could have had it if they were serious about it.
They're not sitting on it in the nefarious sense, they're just not particularly interested in developing EV compared to the ICE side of their business.
- EADGBE 8y ago> they're just not particularly interested in developing EV compared to the ICE side of their business. The ICE business has a lot of cronies that come with it too. I'm sure they're getting kickback for going full-bore with ICE development: you've got the oil dependency, the gas dependency, and the ICE maintenance and component dependency (the more techy and hybrid drivetrains are just a promise for high maintenance costs once things start to break). Throw in the fact that it's super cheap to develop a more efficient gas engine compared to an electric motor/battery combo; and it's pretty easy to see why none of these companies push for it like an outsider without these vested interests. In fact, I could see these outside interests being all for an EV with minuscule range (35-50 miles or whatever the big manufacturers tote now) because they know all and well that the majority of US drivers can't hang with that as a daily driver.