Toyota unveils plans for global line-up of battery electric vehicles

Panasonic supplies Tesla's batteries:

It would be more accurate to say Panasonic manufactures batteries to Tesla's specifications. Panasonic does not design the batteries used by Tesla cars. Tesla does. Tesla then hires Panasonic to manufacture them knowing Panasonic is about the only company out there with the quality control required to build batteries to Tesla's advanced designs. Tesla uses LG batteries in certain Chinese market models for the simple reason that Teslas Gigafactory in Nevada operated for them by Panasonic does not have the ability to meet all of Tesla's battery demand. The Chinese do not drive as fast or as far as cars are driven in the US so the LG battery is good enough for that market.

The Toyota Camry was the best-selling car in America last year. They must be doing something right.

At 67 years of age I remember the arrival of Japanese motorcycles .

They quietly produced extremely high quality products for world consumption in the vacuum of the tiny (at that time) Japanese market.

They were thought to be 20 years behind and all of a sudden they were light years ahead. Same situation when they started exporting cars. Years behind and then...........

Toyota and the other Japanese auto manufacturers are not dills.

Someone CLEARLY thinks that it takes 5 years to close a 5 (non-existent, anyway) years technological gap!

Likewise that the laggard will take 5 years to reach from A to B, whilst the competition will INEVITABLY move forward 5 or more years, ensuring the gap will never be closed.

And this is the type of "expertise" moving into Japan!

I am beginning to feel sorry for Nippon.

Jeeez.

Almost bought one last weekend, but the cost for repair/maintaining outweighs the benefits for 2nd hand cars.

I won't claim second-hand cars are for everyone, but as cars go, Toyota hybrids are super reliable. The huge number of Prius taxis indicates that better than anything I can say. The JPN Taxi is another Toyota hybrid.

I've driven a 2019 electric VW Golf and it didn't strike me as something technically beyond Toyota or any established car manufacturer. Putting an electric drivetrain in a car is not particularly difficult. Let's not forget, the much-lamented Nissan were able to do it and get a top seller. The tech in the pipeline that is the game changer, the paradigm shift, is self-driving, but that's still a long way off for everyone working on it.

That is hangover from the poor welcome an electric version of its Rav4 SUV received in the United States in 1997 owing to its limited range and a lack of recharging stations.

I investigated this vehicle. Called a dealer to ask the price: ¥5,000,000. Price to replace the batteries: ¥5,000,000. How long do the batteries last?: 5 years. So, a new (very expensive) car every five years. Even the salesman sounded disappointed.

@samit basu extremely large? How so? 5 years? Toyota's bz lineup is expected to have solid state batteries.

Japanese are roughly 5 years behind Americans, Chinese, and Koreas in EV technology, This is a gap too large to close for Japan as Japan's rivals keep moving forward even as Japan plays a desperate catch-up.

Japanese auto industry will soon follow the fate of Japan's electronics and semi-conductor industry.

Seems to me that Toyota did a very good job with the Prius, but has neglected to keep up with the competition. A shame that they did not capitalize on their front-runner position to stay ahead of the others in the field of EVs.

Only about 20% of the Alphards sold are hybrids

Almost bought one last weekend, but the cost for repair/maintaining outweighs the benefits for 2nd hand cars.

2025. It expects 70 percent of its sales to be standard hybrids that year...

That's only three years' time. Many of their top selling models in Japan have had hybrid versions for years, some all the way back to 2003, but they are heavily outsold by the non-hybrid versions. Only about 20% of the Alphards sold are hybrids, probably because you have to drive the thing for 80,000 km or whatever before the fuel saving makes up for the price premium. The only way Toyota will get 70% of sales as hybrids is by selling them at the same price as the non-hybrid version, which is not going to happen.

This does not mean hybrids are good cars, they are very good cars, just that the economics of it, having to pay upfront for a long-term saving, means the cleverest way to get one is old and second hand where the hybrid price premium has depreciated to zero. Paying upfront for a long term saving is of course a big issue for rooftop solar panels too.

The carmaker is now aiming for a target of 10 percent of its sales from either BEVs or hydrogen vehicles by 2025. It expects 70 percent of its sales to be standard hybrids that year...

What a miserable target. By 2025 Europe will be close to half EV sales.

Let us remind ourselves that standard hybrids are basically internal combustion vehicles.