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It destroys a lot of the competitive advantage Toyota has. Toyota is very, very good at making mechanical components to very high precision & quality levels.

It destroys a lot of the competitive advantage Toyota has. Toyota is very, very good at making mechanical components to very high precision & quality levels. They've built up this core competency by careful attention to detail over decades. It's one of the main reasons why people buy Toyotas. With EVs, you remove many of the components that are required with ICE. Hence, it doesn't matter how good you are at making those components and sourcing them from suppliers. Hence, a random startup can do nearly as well as Toyota, with their billions in capital invested and decades of experience. It's kind of a shame, though, since I'd love to have something with the reliability of a Toyota that also applies that reliability to the EV powertrain. Maybe one of their ex-employees will start something.

userinanother 3y ago
It’s not the drive train I worry about on a new car. Those components are relatively easy to replace even if they can get expensive. The big problem I worry about is wiring and electronics. If the wiring is messed to the whole car might get totaled because finding someone to diagnose is near impossible
ChatGTP 3y ago
They're also operating in a country where life long employment is the norm, people work very hard to get a job at Toyota, it's seen as quite an honor to work there. They're facing a crisis here. In my opinion they either adapt and win, or the majority of staff will lose their job anyway. They can't fire tens of thousands of factory workers so they're doing absolutely everything they can to keep those production lines going in some way or another. I personally don't understand why they can't retrain those staff and build other things such as an EV charging station factory. But yeah, I guess they have little imagination or drive to actually solve the problem and instead play with stupid moonshot ideas like this. The only thing they have left is a great reputation for building ICE cars. Not sure how long that will last though if this madness continues.

userinanother 3y ago

It’s not the drive train I worry about on a new car. Those components are relatively easy to replace even if they can get expensive. The big problem I worry about is wiring and electronics. If the wiring is messed to the whole car might get totaled because finding someone to diagnose is near impossible

ChatGTP 3y ago

They're also operating in a country where life long employment is the norm, people work very hard to get a job at Toyota, it's seen as quite an honor to work there. They're facing a crisis here. In my opinion they either adapt and win, or the majority of staff will lose their job anyway. They can't fire tens of thousands of factory workers so they're doing absolutely everything they can to keep those production lines going in some way or another. I personally don't understand why they can't retrain those staff and build other things such as an EV charging station factory. But yeah, I guess they have little imagination or drive to actually solve the problem and instead play with stupid moonshot ideas like this. The only thing they have left is a great reputation for building ICE cars. Not sure how long that will last though if this madness continues.