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> Toyota still doesn't have a 100% electric vehicle. 1. They have the bZ4X. 2. Toyota also has whatever Subaru's E-SUV is, which is just a re-badged bZ4X. (Fo
by thwayunion 4y ago
> Toyota still doesn't have a 100% electric vehicle.
1. They have the bZ4X.
2. Toyota also has whatever Subaru's E-SUV is, which is just a re-badged bZ4X. (For the rest of time, any Subaru vehicle that isn't an ICE will just be a Toyota vehicle re-badged and decorated for the granola-yuppie-cum-soccer-mom- demo).
3. Toyota's big bet on the plug-in hybrid space is also a smart market position for the next 10+ years. An absolutely MASSIVE percent of non-beater-car-driving Americans have:
3a. short enough commutes/daily trips that they don't need a huge battery to mostly avoid gas usage, as long as they can charge nightly
3b. access to nightly charging via a garage or driveway
3c. still need >500 miles of range often enough that a pure EV is a really expensive proposition for the foreseeable future.
Plug-in hybrids are a great solution for that demo, and it's probably like 2/3rds of the TAM of Americans who will pay $40K+ for a new car (mostly suburbanites who their car on vacations)
- r00fus 4y agoDoes Toyota even have a reasonably long range PHEV? The Chevy Volt with it's 53mi electric range was, what I had hoped, would be the harbinger of long electric range cars (say, 100mi electric + 500mi gas). Instead we have EVs that barely do 250mi range and PHEVs with minuscule electric ranges.
- thwayunion 4y agoThe 2023 Prius PHEV is 40 miles, which is pretty close to the Chevy Volt's 53. So, not really but better than the really tiny numbers of a few years ago. For me 40 miles is about the optimal amount of electric range -- I either go <20 miles a day or >400 miles a day. It's an interesting optimization regime, though, and very customer-specifc. 40 still seems low for the average US customer, I suspect. I expect there will be more e-range options in future model years.