Today, my Kroger store has regular gas for $2.999 per gallon. We often buy enough groceries to earn 1000 fuel points and get the maximum discount of $1.00 per gallon for our monthly fill-up. So, the under $2.00 per gallon has already arrived for some regular Kroger customers in my northeast Indiana city. I checked the price at a Kroger store in Bryan, Ohio about fifty miles away and see they are selling regular for $2.65 and will offer the same up to $1.00 per gallon discount, so some of their customers could pay only $1.65.

I think I paid about $.30 per gallon for regular in 1965, but I was only making $7500 a year. Inflation is real.

 

I just paid $2.69 in northern NJ. The post about $2/gallon was I'm sure without regard to rewards. I can get plane tickets for free on points. Not sure we'll hit $2 and below anytime soon.

 

Costco gas is at $2.65/gallon. I don't buy any gas at grocery stores or independents alongside the road. I consider that "mystery gas" from who knows where... Costco is tier one - top of the line... And I agree with Mike that we won't see fuel under $2.00 anytime soon... Would be nice though

 

EV mass buying is already happening in the US and Toyota/Lexus has been missing the boat. Every 3rd car on my commute is a Model Y.

 

With what's going in with Elon, sales of Tesla has dropped off a cliff.

 

The more we drill here to increase the supply and become energy independent of any global turmoil or manipulation should make the price lower. Of course how greedy the top players are plays a big role in the price. I paid $2.54 here yesterday.

 

I agree I see a lot of Tesla out there also. Last year Lexus discounted there BEV $35,000 just to get rid of them because of poor sales. Of course that vehicle had poor mile range compared to others.

 

Supply is not really the issue - we produce more oil than any nation on earth, now or ever, and for some time now. But OPEC and American oil companies are not going to run as charities. They cannot be forced to drill any fixed amount and if operating wells or refineries become less profitable or even money losers, they will cut back to raise the price again. Remember, too, that supposed “energy independence” is a pretty vague term, as oil is far more complex than many people realize. Different regions of the country and world have different types of oil, sweet or sour, heavy or light, and those take specific refinery operations, operations that are highly complex and cannot not be switched from one type to another with the turning of a few valves. Finally, oil prices are set in a global marketplace, not just here in the US, so global turmoil or manipulation will always be a factor. That is one of the reasons to have alternatives to oil for tings like power generation, from nuclear to natural gas or whatever. The “drill baby, drill” thing is a slogan, not an actual workable solution or policy.

 

Kind of strange but perhaps pertinent..…I sometimes take a peek through Autotrader.ca. Using the filters for Lexus ES, 100,000 km or less, 2016 or newer, $40,000 or less ($30,000 US), and within 1,000 km radius of me I find exactly 7. For Chev Bolt there are 17 and for Nissan Leaf 41. For Tesla there are 361! This is in what is essentially a semi-circle of 600 mile radius. People this side of the border can’t seem to get rid of them fast enough. I guess Elon will learn that public behavior has consequences.

 

Will we see only the BEV next week? When will we see the HEV?

 

So apparently the new ES is basically a re-skinned Crown sedan from Japan. Here is the link. The rear quarter window matches... that's an odd looking massive massive triangle window..

https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/toyota/39935774.html

 

Lots of silly comments/questions, i won't be responding to.

But in terms of BEV and HEV not sharing platforms, I doubt lexus is coming out with a dedicated EV platform version of the ES as well as a PHEV platform of the ES...

if your car uses an exhaust, and there's also a BEV version, it's sharing platforms i.e., BIWs, lol.

this is share-a-rooni all the way

AFAIK Tesla and Hyundai and Ford (as the only gas manufacturers) who sell in the US who are making proper dedicated EV platforms. and in terms of sales #s, the latter are way way way WAY low on the totem pole. cracking the EV code is extremely extremely difficult.

 

The page you've linked is a 2023 press release about a rear-drive Japanese Crown sedan. This is not a relative of the US Crown or the existing ES. It's the more sophisticated luxury car platform that underpins the Mirai and was going to be the next-gen GS before that model got scrubbed. I'd take this platform in mechanical AWD form as the next ES in a nanosecond.

 

Amusingly blurry teaser. Good thing we only have one week to wait for actual views.

For now, this seems apparent:
•Grille has a body-color cap like the new RX and NX.
•Doesn't look tall like the U.S. Crown sedan.
•Full-width hairline taillight with an illuminated word "LEXUS" in its middle.
•More fastback roofline at the trunklid.

What we don't know is what's underneath, the ES/Crown/Camry FWD architecture or the RWD luxury-car platform that underpins the Mirai and the Japanese home-market Crown sedan. I'd adore the latter, but every ES in 30+ years has been the former, and that's always been the key to the ES's affordability.

Toyota used the telltale word "flagship" before trying to walk it back, hinting that as expected the LS is marked for death (sigh). Does this mean the ES gets a promotion (and price increase) to proper luxury car mechanicals? My guess is no.

 

In terms of proportions of the Crown, i've circled the areas which I think are weird. I hope these are ironed out somehow for the ES. Weird things happen when you stretch a car too long in the back. glass has to go somewhere. and doors stop abruptly and make the rear doors look stunted. door glass gets too big and it cant roll down due to the wheel arch. so you end up with a very square and short door glass despite having a long door. this in turn gives you huge quarter windows if you slope the roof like that. everything affects everything. that fuel door lid is comically big too. gee.