It’s clear that Toyota has for a couple years now downplayed battery electric cars in favor of Fuel Cell vehicles. Rather than stay invested in Tesla Motors, Toyota sold off their stake, they’ve buried the Toyota Prius Plug-in, did not produce any more of the Gen2 Toyota RAV4 EV, and have…
Today the Geek Squad and Toyota announced that Best Buy (the Geek Squad’s operators) is switching from their iconic VW Beetle’s over to Toyota Prius c’s. While this is great for Toyota and Prius sales, it strikes me that an interesting opportunity is being missed. There’s several companies offering services in…
At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Toyota is demo’ing it’s idea of the “Future of Mobility”. As has become plainly obvious over the last couple years, Toyota believes plug-in vehicles will fail and that fuel cell EV’s are the future. While other companies are at CES…
Maybe it’s a fuel cell day? In any case some of the Japanese automakers have announced a partnership on fuel cell refueling infrastructure in Japan. If nothing else it demonstrates that not all fuel cell support comes from the California Air Resources Board, which is slanting the ZEV Credit playing…
A few days ago Daimler announced it had sold its entire stake in Tesla Motors, and now Toyota has sold “some” of its Tesla stake. That’s Tesla’s two major corporate backers, both the Daimler and Toyota investments were critical to Tesla’s survival to this point, exiting their relationships with Tesla…
Back in 2010, Tesla Motors and Toyota surprised us all with a deal to jointly develop the 2nd Generation Toyota RAV4-EV. Toyota also sold Tesla a factory it wasn’t using, with which Tesla now plans to build a half million EV’s a year in 2020. The resulting vehicle is being…
All the car companies are working on what’s called Intelligent Transportation Systems, that will lead to self-driving cars over the due course of time. Today, Toyota announced the fourth annual Toyota Advanced Safety Seminar (TASS), convened in Ann Arbor, Michigan ahead of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress next…
Hey Toyota/Lexus, pay attention, we don’t want stinking gasoline, we don’t want to fund wars and terrorism to get gasoline, and we don’t want to participate in the poisonous patterns of fossil fuels. We want clean cars powered by sunlight! We do not appreciate your attempts to keep us stuck…
What can automakers do to improve highway safety? The other day I wrote about the coming age of autonomous vehicles and how they might both reduce traffic congestion and reduce traffic accidents. Today, Toyota has announced some in-car-gizmos meant to increase Driver Awareness, and therefore reduce traffic accidents. Having been…
Toyota’s Chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada, all but confirmed my suspicion from a few weeks ago – Toyota is planning to stick with Hybrid technology and wait for the next generation of battery technology, or fuel cells, before making a big push in vehicle electrification. Speaking last week at the Economic Club…
The Scion iQ EV exists after all, and is going to be used in a car sharing program in Pleasanton CA. A few days ago I’d asked whether Toyota is going to be canceling its electric vehicle programs, thanks to a press release playing up their hybrid cars, portraying fuel…
How serious is Toyota about the Gen2 Toyota RAV4 EV? It’s built using the previous generation RAV4 car, and is being built in miniscule quantities. Hence, it looks like Toyota is doing the RAV4 EV exercise in order to have a Compliance Car to satisfy ZEV Mandate requirements. But, we…
Toyota and Ford are abandoning a collaboration that would have led a jointly developed hybrid drive train for SUV’s and trucks that do heavy lifting. Toyota released a statement saying Toyota and Ford have completed their feasibility study for collaboration on the development of a new hybrid system for light…
Toyota has long clung to the Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries, claiming that lithium-ion batteries are too expensive. While that might be the case, there are dozens of research projects going on that aims to increase energy density, increase power density, and reduce the cost of batteries. What it means is that…
As the Toyota Prius Plug-in makes its way towards dealer show-rooms, Toyota announces that, in California, the Prius Plug-in will qualify for an additional rebate under the CVRP program, and additionally qualifies for the same green HOV access sticker that the Chevy Volt will get. The Toyota Prius Plug-in is making its way towards dealer…
