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Although not Toyota news per se, but kind of indicates the state of legacy players in Japan and elsewhere Honda and Nissan to join forces to survive electric vehicle race
The original Leaf happened during Carlos Ghosn’s leadership and Andy Palmer was the vehicle development manager. CG also lead the Nissan Renault merger. This did not sit well with other Japanese management and government.That, in effect, is an extraordinary admission of defeat in Japan. Very rare to see public admissions of failure in a country where “losing face” is one of the worst things someone can ever experience.
Nissan’s trajectory is very puzzling. They were one of the first to make a “modern” BEV and hence potentially gain an early mover advantage… but then they completely squandered it by doing nothing with it.
Subsequent iterations of the LEAF were just fiddling at the edges. It was many years before they made a long-range version, and they still eschewed active battery cooling despite Tesla proving how important it was. And it took a decade before they introduced a second BEV model (the Ariya, which we still can’t get here). It’s truly puzzling why a company out of the blocks so fast would then do all of that.
And now it’s reached the point where they think the only way they can survive is to join forces with a rival in the BEV space.
As much as the LEAF was mocked, it’s been a very reliable and enjoyable city car for us, and very well made and appointed, despite the GUI/App/telematics part always being clunky (if it worked at all). Service costs have been close to non-existent once we escaped Nissan’s “scheduled servicing” model. And it was the car that seduced us into the world of BEVs, from which we never want to leave.
Their marketing is pretty impressive too. Its awesome that they have safety recalls to address issues, but you never hear about them in the media (which they pay a lot to advertise on, coincidently )For Toyota it's a classic case of your strength becoming your weakness. Their legendary reliability (disclaimer- I'm a fan boi) comes partly from their conservative approach to sticking with tried and tested technology, re-using existing modules that work (e.g. commonality in suspension parts), and continuous improvement (incremental progress). Doesn't bode well for such a major technological shift like BEV.
When Toyota developed hybrid decades ago the story of how they did it using a small team of their best engineers is well documented. They need to pull that one off again.
When Toyota developed hybrid decades ago the story of how they did it using a small team of their best engineers is well documented. They need to pull that one off again.
And the question is can they and will they? Nissan and Honda finally seemed to have gotten the memo, and now get it that BEVs are not just an irritation to their ongoing profitability, but an existential threat.
Honda’s president Toshihiro Mibe said: “We are strapped for time and need to be speedy. In 2030, to be in a good position we need a decision now. The rise of emerging players is becoming faster and stronger. Companies that cannot respond to the changes will be wiped out.”
Can’t get clearer than that… an incredible admission by an established Japanese automaker.
Toyota hasn’t even got that far, and the later they see the writing on the wall, the harder it will be for them to survive.
How are cars "Registered with Endeavours Energy Network"? What does that mean?somebody said that EV sales are going down - EV uptake in Sydney's outer western suburbs has jumped nearly 50 pct in six months
somebody said that EV sales are going down
Yep couple that with very poor offerings from legacy brands and dealerships going out of the way to steer customers away from EV models because they can't gouge them as badly on service costs.Well only journalists with an agenda or who have a very poor understanding of maths have written that.
It is true that the rate of sales growth of EVs is declining in some markets. That is to be expected as the size of the EV fleet becomes larger, nothing can keep doubling in sales every year forever. So instead of growing, say, 80% in a year, the increase might be 50% in a given country.
However many journalists have then, either deliberately/maliciously, or through sheer ignorance, shortened that be “sales” of EVs are declining.
There is a very, very big difference between “rate of sales growth declining” and “sales declining”. They are almost completely opposite things.
In NSW, EV sales have been growing at an average CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 92% p.a. over the past 5 years. See my post:
Tesla market share of BEVs in NSW
Even your basic Nokia was a lot more than $150 in the day, and combined with say a $500 Palm Pilot, or a BlackBerry, the iPhone wasn't actually that expensive. And compared to your original $2k+ car phones, they were cheap. Now yes they've expanded the market for those willing to buy premium...teslamotorsclub.com
and snipping a photo of the export yard in shanghai of all the cars waiting to be shipped with the caption "Look at all these EVS stockpiled that they cant sell"Yep couple that with very poor offerings from legacy brands and dealerships going out of the way to steer customers away from EV models because they can't gouge them as badly on service costs.
The drop off in legacy EV sales as a result then gets conflated to "all EVs are not selling" which is laughable given Tesla have the highest selling vehicle in the world.
Click bait and laziness is all it comes down to.
Wow that photo brought me instant memories of the 1950s built Macchi jet trainer cockpit.Look what I found when driving past the local Toyota dealer.
My half baked summary:
- Looks like a Toyota, thats fine, its not horrib,e
- Interior / Dash is horrible. SOOOOO much piano back, like every door and the centre console.
- Interior feels plasticy, like the RAV4 right next to it felt tougher and cohesive.
- Stupid drive selector is really dinky and makes loud spring noises.
- Instrument screen looks like a 20 year old portable DVD player.
- Rear seat is low, like you get in the back of a Model 3, knees up. but plenty of room between rear and front seat, just cant get feet under the front seats.
- Why do they insist on a power button?
-
- Extra bonus points for a regular indicator stalk on the correct side and a wiper stalk however.
- Didn't drive it, but almost guarantee the suspension is more suited to daily driving that a Model Y!
Beside it being average, its main issue is the price. If this thing was 45k, I'd forgive nearly everything.
View attachment 1032105
This interior probably might have looked cool to someone in the 1990s. The issue with a lot of these legacy manufacturers is that they think - oh you want electric, let us give you a futuristic looking design, 90% of which looks odd and out of place.... This thing isn't any different. I'd personally like to meet these people who make these oddball business decisions and then think that they will continue to succeed especially when your competition is a Tesla at a similar price point.Look what I found when driving past the local Toyota dealer.
My half baked summary:
- Looks like a Toyota, thats fine, its not horrib,e
- Interior / Dash is horrible. SOOOOO much piano back, like every door and the centre console.
- Interior feels plasticy, like the RAV4 right next to it felt tougher and cohesive.
- Stupid drive selector is really dinky and makes loud spring noises.
- Instrument screen looks like a 20 year old portable DVD player.
- Rear seat is low, like you get in the back of a Model 3, knees up. but plenty of room between rear and front seat, just cant get feet under the front seats.
- Why do they insist on a power button?
-
- Extra bonus points for a regular indicator stalk on the correct side and a wiper stalk however.
- Didn't drive it, but almost guarantee the suspension is more suited to daily driving that a Model Y!
Beside it being average, its main issue is the price. If this thing was 45k, I'd forgive nearly everything.
View attachment 1032105
Look what I found when driving past the local Toyota dealer.
lol! now wouldn't that be something. They are understandably scared because they won't have a role to play in the EV game then, we can't blame them to trying to create this narrative. But I personally think we are seeing a sad demise of Toyota unless they pull a rabbit out of their hat and release 5+ EVs in the next 6 months which are production ready and not just concepts.Interesting… did you ask the dealer to comment on Sean Hanley’s (VP of sales at Toyota Australia) statement that he thinks battery EVs are “impractical for the vast majority of Australian motorists”? Do they agree with that statement, and hence, would they advise you to not buy this car?
@Vostok was it the Nissan leaf or Holden Volt when it first came i recall you had to basically apply to buy one? They took into account your estimated traveling distances, charging infrastructure etc?