this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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Does Toyota have any electic models? I thought they were still stuck between hybrids and hydrogen.
They made one, and they called it the BZ4X. That's the sort of name that you give a car you don't want people to buy. And in the event anyone did buy buy it, they made sure the wheels fell off.
By contrast they literally call their hydrogen car the future, so it's clear where their priorities lie.
I'm sure they're working on EVs behind the scenes for mainstream release once other companies iron out the quirks, while the Murai is a long-term development platform. Let's not forget Toyota dove headfirst into hybrids 23 years ago while other companies were developing shit like the Hummer H2 and the Excursion. People act like Toyota hates EVs but they're just very conservative in their designs because their brand has a reputation for being reliable and economical. Compare that with early Teslas costing $100k and having terrible QC issues. Nobody wants that from a Toyota.
Honestly that is what makes the most sense to me. They are known as the slow adopter of technology. So they're just playing the long game by waiting to jump into the BEV world head first once they let the market shake out the first few hurdles. Plus it lets them wait on purchasing Lithium, which is currently in a huge bubble. So from the c-suite, it makes perfect sense to play coy with BEVs right now.
They've announced a lot of EVs are in the works but they'll also keep offering hybrids and FCEVs. They kind of have to our they'll lose the European market.
And they have also announced that their EVs will use the same naming scheme as the BZ4X. Toyota has good, distinct, and memorable names for everything other than their EVs.
The choice to identify their EVs by a catalog number instead of a name, shows that they're only making EVs because they have to.
They also have the Prius Prime and Rav4 Prime models which have larger battery packs and charge ports compared to their standard hybrid variants. These models don't support DC fast charging and still operate like standard hybrids so having the larger charge network isn't as important.
I'm not sure if the existing Tesla level 2 "chargers" would work in this case but assuming they do it would offer more options.
I have a prius prime! Works perfect for my use case. Everyday driving is full battery with maybe a bit of gas. Big long trips require no extra planning or stops.
Not for everyone, and i figure will last until EVs are nice and developed with better infrastructure up where i live.
They released a compliance car (BZ4x) built with Subaru. From what I've read it sucks and essentially just performs the same function as the PT Cruiser and Chevy HHR did back in the day. I'm sure this'll be retained for the future when they have a proper lineup of EVs though.
Yes, they've created an BEV specific platform, which currently is used by the Toyota bZ4X/Subaru Solterra and Lexus RZ, with the Toyota bZ3 due in 2024.
They have some plug in hybrids, too
They have plug in hybrids.