Gale Hawkins
Super Member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
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- 8,265
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- Murray, KY
- Tractor
- 1948 Allis Chambers Model B 1976 265 MF / 1983 JD 310B Backhoe / 1966 Ford 3000 Diesel / 1980 3600 Diesel
Here's what will never make the news. Toyota is going to sell a plug in Rav4 that will get up to 40 miles on just battery power. They will sell more of them and sales will increase than Tesla will sell model 3s. If Toyota (the big 3) were to make a plug in hybrid truck that could get 50 plus miles on a charge with a real engine in it for when you needed the range or power it would sell much better than an EV truck. As Tesla fans love to say, most people don't drive that far each day. Even if you drive 75 miles to and from work that would be 1 vs 3 gallons of gas.
First drive: the first-ever hybrid Toyota RAV4 | Top Gear
Toyota RAV4 EV Models, Generations & Redesigns | Cars.com
Do you know why Toyota did not make a go of it with the Rav4 EV and Hybrid the first time around?
Toyota Mirai - Wikipedia
While this Toyota was able to match Tesla's Model 3 range and cost for some reason they only sold several thousands per this info in the USA. My take they are coming with hybrids again as a stop gap measure until they develop the skills to compete with EV's from other sources. While not so much in the USA currently but in the rest of the world if major car companies can not figure out how to do EV's the Chinese EV's I expect will own more and more of their current market share.
Hybrids still burn fossil fuels which is more and more of a no no in Europe and China. Hybrids were a good hack until EV battery costs started dropping and the event of fast EV charging stations. Because hybrids are a hack their days are numbered as are more and more cars with IC based engines.
This was not just a Toyota problem but Ford had the same kind of failure with their EV's and Hybrids of the same era.
Everyone agrees Tesla is years ahead in the EV market (the only market with a long term future per world governments). If Ford does not make the Mustang and F-150 EV's to the standard of Tesla EV's they are at risk at staying in business with only ICE vehicles.
EV's are so much less expensive to build than ICE's now that battery prices are dropping. Robots bring quality at a lower cost.
Because Ford has a bad track record with EV's and Tesla has such success I expect we will see the first 100K EV trucks from Tesla before we see the same number from Ford.
The Tesla Super Chargers are world wide so why would a traveler look at any other brand of cars and trucks. Sure my Leaf is fine for 90% of my driving but not all of it. With ICE development stopped it is just a matter of time EV's will be our only vehicle option it seems.
Today there are many unknowns and few if any knowns other than ICE's are going away.