Toyota hears your sentiment, and thus, has put hybrid powerplants in most of their "traditional" offerings.

For others who want to squeeze every possible mpg out their vehicle, and are willing to compromise styling points for green-signaling points, the Prius is still the way to go!

I have no qualms with celebrities who choose drive a Prius, I applaud them. Hopefully they are equally environmentally conscious when it comes to other decisions made in how they live their life, but I doubt it. If one has money to burn, how can one enjoy it without incinerating a bunch of carbon?

 

They are scrapping the V8 because they don't get enough sales, that is the real reason, if V8's sold in good enough numbers they will find a way to have them stick around, at least in the US and other markets that don't have such stupid regs. I don't see V6's going away for a long time. There is no reason they can't give the Prius more power, use the most modern tech, bigger battery to give it more power while getting very good fuel economy.

You really think the grid will be 100% clean or close to it, where is this magic totally clean energy that can handle such a increased demand going to come from, many places have trouble or at the brink now where EV's make up such a small part of the auto landscape and the so called "green" ones(they aren't) have to be backed up by non renewable s but they are not reliable/can't handle all the power demands.

"A petrol car will never be clean" Neither will a EV.

 

The public when not being forced/mandated clearly does not want EV's, they want ICE vehicles. How do you know they bet on the wrong horse, the American buying public and most other markets certainly don't want or buy EV's in any kind of numbers. This is predominantly being forced by clueless politicians/govt. for no real benefits and likely many problems. Let the free market decide what they want to drive. EV's and charging structure has existed for a while with no mandates or forcing them on the public, they are not being stopped.

Toyota is going by what most of the market wants, desires, buys, they are innovating with new ICE tech, offering very good ICE packages, hybrid vehicles, etc. If there is a breakthrough with battery/EV tech they will likely jump on that, currently there isn't, they are compromised in many areas compared to ICE vehicles and will create their own set of problems, likely hurt the auto industry if not bankrupt them, give China a huge advantage, result in millions losing good jobs for the gain of thousands of jobs which will somehow be sold as a good thing.

 

The comparison is not valid at all, the EV simply does not have any real advantages over ICE when it comes to ease of use, practicality, saving money, convenience, quality, features, etc like digital had over film. You needed to send out film to be developed, hope it didn't get lost or ruined, pick it up, and it was pretty expensive, that is a huge disadvantage and weakness. Digital solved all those things, very easy, can do everything right at home on a computer, laptop, etc and does not cost a thing, can easily share, can even edit/modify, so much convenience over film. I still like film when it comes to pictures and movies, I like having all those physical copies of pictures, looking at them, I like the way film looks in pictures and movies more then digital, find it nostalgic but I can still admit digital is far more convenient and superior in just about every way. You can not say that about EV's, you may like that they don't make noise, many have a lot of torque down low but there are many compromises with EV's, some make them virtually impossible to use/own for certain people who travel a lot, travel far distances, do not have the time or in some cases resources to charge them/keep charging them.

 

Your assessment of EV vs. ICE is where we disagree. EV is simply more practical for a daily driver because it doesn't require refueling at a nasty gas station at all as I have a full charge in the morning, easily the lowest cost to own out of any vehicle as the car maintenance thread in Car Chat shows, and is vastly cheaper to refuel (magnitudes cheaper). Also, the features, quality are on par as those aren't specific to EV or ICE rather it is the manufacturer. I could say the EQS has way more features than any Lexus and its an EV right so its brand specific vs. drivetrain platform. The only advantage of ICE is weight and refueling time on long trips. Every other advantage goes to EV (power, maintenance, cost to fuel, lack of complexity, NVH).

 

An EV subsidy is similar to the subsidy that big oil has received for years...so what. Let the government provide the subsidy and see whether that will drive EV adoption. For Toyota to actively lobby against it (and they are the only ones as the others have already jumped ship) shows they screwed up their timing and trying to slow the market down. I think thats pretty awful. I'm against the ban on ICE...but I think if you provide an EV subsidy, the market will freely switch because EVs are simply better from my experience. Way better. If Lexus came out with a comparable product to Tesla with higher quality, it would completely blow away their ICE offerings.

 

People are being forced by the millions to pre-order electric vehicles? 🤨 Wait times for a Tesla keeps growing if it continues you'll have to wait 6 months to get one. People are being forced into that as well?

 

Last i checked, they haven't had a subsidy in over a year....maybe its because they are that good to drive

 

As usual, citation needed. Preferably something reputable and not more self-made anecdotes.

It's a fact that global emissions are killing off high-displacement engines. It's not up for debate like the future of EV's. Nobody bought the LS460 because it had a V8? Puh-lease.

 

Where turbo engines tend to outdo big V8's is around town; on the highway most of the advantages of turbos go away because NA engines are at their peak power there.

That being said, the fuel economy and performance of the 2.4T as applied in the NX might actually be worst in its class.

 

Great post. You are spot on

Prius did its job. It’s styling brought attention to the fact that it was a hybrid. Now, Toyota is the undisputed leader in hybrid cars as no other automaker comes close to the brand equity Toyota has. Brand equity so strong, Toyota can now sell hybrid “only” models. As Toyota introduces a number of battery electrics over the years, there is a sizeable base of owners that may make the jump to a Toyota battery electric.

This was all started with some very “forward” thinking in the early 1990s. The same thing can be said for the Mirai. People must think past the 60M in front of them

 

I agree 100% with you - you definitely should think past 60m. 😃

 

Car and Driver wrote something about V8s a while ago. EVs will get taxed as well to make up for the loss of road taxes, as well as other things they can come up with…connection fees etc So it will for sure balance itself out and it will be more expensive to drive a EV in the future

America Still Loves Its Gas-Guzzling V-8s. But for How Long?

 

Interesting article.

 

Eventually you will realize that that battery EVs are not the solution for every segment, need or circumstance.