Toyota. EV. Think About It

15 Comments on “ Toyota. EV. Think About It ”

• KalapanaBlack :
  January 11th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
  
  

  Ugly little bugger. Why is it covered with gold stars? Are those from the EPA for sucking up the most?

  Anyway, it’s less useable than the Volt, not a sports car like the Tesla, and not as conventional as the Chrysler (pie-in-the-sky) EV “concepts.” So it’d better be affordable and ultra-frugal, or it’s not gonna sell.

  Of course, the absurd looks could play in its favor with the “gotta be different” green car crowd. The Hollywood branch members would probably even pay decent coin for it.

• RedStapler :
  January 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
  
  

  I agree the promotional livery on the car looks odd.

  As a value proposition for a daily driver commuter car it could work at a low price point.

  Some areas have rock bottom subsidized electric rates for charging EVs off-peak. There between 2300-0600 there is often unused baseload capacity in the utility system.

  The city utility in Sacramento charges $0.04/kWh. At 11kWh=1gal of gas equivalent it works out to gas at $0.44/gal. Throw in all the other social engineering love for EVs like tax credits, solo carpool privileges and it starts to become attractive.

• esg :
  January 11th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
  
  

  It’s a Toyota. Obviously it will be better engineered and a higher quality than anything GM could produce (Volt). Order up!

• Demetri :
  January 11th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
  
  

  $20,000 + 50 mile range sounds like pure win to me. I won’t be able to drive out of a 50 mile range from my house, but that isn’t necessary.

• Robert Schwartz :
  January 11th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
  
  

  “I won’t be able to drive out of a 50 mile range from my house, but that isn’t necessary.”

  25, unless you are willing to walk home.

• eh_political :
  January 11th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
  
  

  Peanuts to run, quick to build if demand spikes. Toyota is doing the smart thing.

  All first gen EVs should be light two seaters, until those hoped for advances in battery tech come to pass. This is the car as consumer electronics item,,so by keeping it cheap and city-friendly sized, Toyota ensures that its product will actually retain some value and utility for low end buyers, long after better solutions have been devised and implemented. In 10 years, a college student might consider a used one, picked up for a song, that is cheap to charge.

  Who knows what the operating costs for a current hybrid will be in 10 years, or how badly they will be outperformed by coming generations.

  This is a shrewd move by Toyota.

• bomber991 :
  January 11th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
  
  

  Woah, did everyone just forget about the RAV4 EV?

• Hank :
  January 11th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
  
  

  Ugh.

• PeteMoran :
  January 11th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
  
  

  Looks like every manufacturer is nearly ready with their pure EVs, just in time to hand GM/Chrysler their freshly lengthened dunce caps.

• cmus :
  January 11th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
  
  

  egads that’s ugly. like a micro-yaris. worse than the new Toyo thing (vezna?)

• wave54 :
  January 11th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
  
  

  Wow, $0.04/kWh for electricity in Sacramento? It’s about $0.18/kWh in my area (CT) with no discounts for off-peak available. Using the same calculations (11 kWh=1 gallon gasoline), it turns out that gas is cheaper for me right now at $1.70/gallon.

• reclusive_in_nature :
  January 11th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
  
  

  I’m sure most auto critics and everyone that just hates Detroit vehicles for the sake of hating Detroit vehicles will be lined up to kiss this vehicles ass no matter how well the domestic’s EVs do.

• ZoomZoom :
  January 11th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
  
  

  reclusive_in_nature :

  I’m sure most auto critics and everyone that just hates Detroit vehicles for the sake of hating Detroit vehicles will be lined up to kiss this vehicles ass no matter how well the domestic’s EVs do.

  Oh come on now. It doesn’t HAVE an ass to kiss!

  But then if I get a second vehicle for those drives to the office (which I COULD do, since I only live 10 miles from my job), it would have to have no ass. I have too many tools in my garage, so any second vehicle must be short. Very short. And narrow. Very narrow.

• PeteMoran :
  January 11th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
  
  

  @ wave54

  11 kWh=1 gallon gasoline (which is commonly quoted as the Gasoline Gallon Equivalent GGE) is not really intended for this type of calculation.

  Neither is accounting for efficiency (or lack of).

• Demetri :
  January 11th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
  
  

  “25, unless you are willing to walk home.”

  Yeah, I started thinking about that later. My commute is about 22 each way, so it wouldn’t work for me. Also, they say 50, but with the way EVs are, it could be half as much depending on conditions and driving style.

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