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Concept vehicles are really nothing more than a marketing effort. They don't represent an actual plan to produce any of these vehicles. Toyota has a single pro

Concept vehicles are really nothing more than a marketing effort. They don't represent an actual plan to produce any of these vehicles. Toyota has a single production BEV, which is due to be released "Real Soon Now" in the US, and next year in Australia. But they're only going to make about 7,000 of them[1] this year. They are still heavily pushing their fuel-cell vehicles, along with FUD about how BEVs will cause the electric grid to melt down if everyone owns a BEV and all plug it in at once. For example, this Toyota-sponsored video series from Diana Cowern (Physics Girl) is full of FUD and half-truths about BEVs, while neatly side-stepping the reality that all the cheap sources of Hydrogen are from LNG. [2] [1] https://www.autonews.com/cars-concepts/its-best-consider-2023-toyota-bz4x-ev-numbers https://www.autonews.com/cars-concepts/its-best-consider-202... [2] There's a whole bunch of videos in the series and it's too long for me to go through and pick out individual quotes, but these two videos are IIRC the main ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWAO3vUn7nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWAO3vUn7nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghIckc7nrY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghIckc7nrY

clouddrover 4y ago
> They don't represent an actual plan to produce any of these vehicles. Let's do some reading! The Verge article says, "Toyota is ramping up its electric vehicle production schedule, vowing to release 30 electric vehicles by 2030 rather than just 15 EVs by 2025, as was previously promised. The Japanese automaker also vowed to sell 3.5 million battery EVs globally by 2030 and to transform Lexus into an EV-only brand by 2035. The company said it would invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) in battery vehicle technology, an increase over its previous commitment of 1.5 trillion yen ($13.6 billion)." Sounds like a plan to me. > Toyota has a single production BEV No, they have multiple BEVs - the Toyota BZ4X, a Lexus, a China only Toyota small car, a Toyota Proace van. More to come. Toyota produces both BEVs and FCEVs: https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/03/toyota-presents-roadmap-for-europe-and-the-bz4x/ https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/03/toyota-presents-roadmap... > But they're only going to make about 7,000 of them 7,000 allocated for the US market. The North American EV market is only one third the size of the European and Chinese EV markets. Toyota will target the bigger markets first, especially when it helps them with their fleet emissions requirements. Your mistake is to construe this in terms of gang warfare or seeing it like a sport. Toyota doesn't care about that. Toyota just wants to sell cars. ICE, BEV, FCEV, they don't care and they will do it all.
robocat 4y ago
> FUD about how BEVs will cause the electric grid to melt down Are Toyota still doing that? The only article I found was from 2015, which was about their Hydrogen powered vehicles. To agree with you, the grid can handle electric cars: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/06/engineering-explained-yes-the-grid-can-handle-evs/ https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/06/engineering-explained-y...

clouddrover 4y ago

> They don't represent an actual plan to produce any of these vehicles. Let's do some reading! The Verge article says, "Toyota is ramping up its electric vehicle production schedule, vowing to release 30 electric vehicles by 2030 rather than just 15 EVs by 2025, as was previously promised. The Japanese automaker also vowed to sell 3.5 million battery EVs globally by 2030 and to transform Lexus into an EV-only brand by 2035. The company said it would invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) in battery vehicle technology, an increase over its previous commitment of 1.5 trillion yen ($13.6 billion)." Sounds like a plan to me. > Toyota has a single production BEV No, they have multiple BEVs - the Toyota BZ4X, a Lexus, a China only Toyota small car, a Toyota Proace van. More to come. Toyota produces both BEVs and FCEVs: https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/03/toyota-presents-roadmap-for-europe-and-the-bz4x/ https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/03/toyota-presents-roadmap... > But they're only going to make about 7,000 of them 7,000 allocated for the US market. The North American EV market is only one third the size of the European and Chinese EV markets. Toyota will target the bigger markets first, especially when it helps them with their fleet emissions requirements. Your mistake is to construe this in terms of gang warfare or seeing it like a sport. Toyota doesn't care about that. Toyota just wants to sell cars. ICE, BEV, FCEV, they don't care and they will do it all.

robocat 4y ago

> FUD about how BEVs will cause the electric grid to melt down Are Toyota still doing that? The only article I found was from 2015, which was about their Hydrogen powered vehicles. To agree with you, the grid can handle electric cars: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/06/engineering-explained-yes-the-grid-can-handle-evs/ https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/06/engineering-explained-y...