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Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. Toyota has always leaned into hybrids and away from full-electric models. They just aren't very good at competing
by Bud 3y ago
Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. Toyota has always leaned into hybrids and away from full-electric models. They just aren't very good at competing in the full-electric market. So it makes sense for them to issue a self-serving "forecast" and simultaneously announce that they're pushing hybrids instead.
- miguelazo 3y agoNot just hybrids— they went all in on hydrogen, which was stupid.
- Dalewyn 3y agoTo be fair here, it's not Toyota that is going all-in on hydrogen. It's Japan as a political whole that is going all-in on hydrogen.
- gnicholas 3y agoWhy wasn’t Honda similarly affected?
- klooney 3y agoThey were, their electric cars have been pretty bad- super low range (110 miles), low volume production. Their new, competitive cars are based on GM's tech and battery stack.
- gnicholas 3y agoBut they didn’t put out hydrogen-powered vehicles (at least in the US), did they?
- Dalewyn 3y agoThey have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Clarity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Clarity >The Honda Clarity is a nameplate used by Honda on alternative fuel vehicles. It was initially used only on hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles such as the 2008 Honda FCX Clarity, but in 2017 the nameplate was expanded to include the battery-electric Honda Clarity Electric and the plug-in hybrid electric Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, in addition to the next generation Honda Clarity Fuel Cell. Clarity production ended in August 2021 with US leases for the fuel cell variant continuing through to 2022.
- clouddrover 3y agoIn what sense did Toyota go "all in" on hydrogen? Toyota produces more ICE vehicles than any other drive train. Toyota produces more hybrids than BEVs. And more BEVs than FCEVs. The Toyota Mirai, for example, has always been a low volume vehicle. There's no sense in which Toyota went all in on it. The more simple reality is that Toyota produces many drive train types.
- idontwantthis 3y agoThey went all in as an alternative to ICE. Their BEVs are very recent. They had people arguing for more than a decade “will it be batteries or hydrogen?” without any serious effort at all to make the Mirai more than a source of confusion and discouragement.
- clouddrover 3y agoAnd how does your conspiracy theory explain the low volume production of the Mirai? Things really are more simple: Toyota's going to build cars and try to sell them. They build multiple drive trains because they can. They will build more of the ones that sell.
- idontwantthis 3y agoIt’s not necessarily a conspiracy they might have just been unserious or lazy in forcing the world to make a huge change. They sold very few of them because nobody wanted to buy them because there’s no fuel for them. If they wanted to sell them they needed to build a fuel network.
- clouddrover 3y ago> they might have just been unserious or lazy in forcing the world to make a huge change Eh, you want Toyota, a car company, to force you to do things? That's a strange perspective. > They sold very few of them Because they produced very few of them. They still don't make very many. I think we've arrived back at the beginning. You're agreeing that Toyota didn't go "all in" on hydrogen.
- idontwantthis 3y agoThey went all in on Hydrogen which is maybe just maybe not stupid but then went 0% in on supplying the hydrogen! That’s the really stupid thing which makes it clear they were never serious about it. Tesla matters because of the supercharger network. Without it they would be building super cars for environmentalist billionaires and that would be it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]