[joe1347]

[PrestonSturges]

I did a term paper on electric vehicles, and I went from gung-ho to ho-hum, especially regards the Prius. There's a LOT of room for improvement.

[Jotapay]

If it has 100 mile range, I would buy it in a heartbeat. They said it would be "affordable", which I assume means < $25K. I'll sell my Toyota Matrix which is my car that I use when the weather is bad or I have passengers and can't take my Honda Helix Scooter. I will keep my 3/4 ton diesel truck for the infrequent long-range trips that would be required, once every three months or so at most.

Edit: never mind. It still uses a gas generator. It's "electric first". I want an all-electric to upgrade. Doesn't make sense since buying a new car would not make sense from a resource standpoint required to make a new car than conserve the rather fuel efficient one I already have.

Wake me when there is an all-electric car and I'll jump on it like a budding teenager on a Porky's movie. The Matrix and Honda Helix will do me fine until then.

[yesplease]

Unless you have a car that gets ~100+mpg, or a scooter/bike that gets ~300+mpg, even w/ the resources needed to build a new one, getting something more efficient than what you have currently makes sense from the POV of energy consumption, although the economic incentives aren't as appealing.

Offhand, the Leaf, i-Miev, DUO, 2e (if it ever comes out), and probably a few others should be able to pull 100 miles if you drive conservatively. All off them may not make it, but I'm pretty sure at least one or two will.

[Mesuge]

The issue here is that for plugin hybrids to work they must fit into specific needs/markets. Specifically, Prius is very cheap in the U.S. ~ $22k, now the 2011 plugin version is replacing that smallish NiMH battery pack for larger ~5.2kWh Li-ion pack @ higher voltage, the rest of the car remains largely the same, as this next gen 2010 Prius platform has been designed with future plugin compatible components in the first place. So, from Toyota's standpoint they should be able to jack up the price only by 2-3.5 grands for the plugin version (batt. price difference) if they are serious about the project, which is far from certain, but they clearly lost recently that "green" marketing momentum in comparison to those EV startups and other OEMs, so the pricing should be good.

Compare that with other plugins comming to the U.S. market, yes the e-range of this plugin Prius is tiny but the price as well (v. Volt, Fisker, Tesla, ..) And there are perhaps still some states/municipalities in the U.S. where you can apply for some incentive$ when buying Prius. In summary, this is very competetive package for many years to come given the conditions of the U.S. market.

Lets change continents for a minute, Prius has been a hard sell in diesel dominated EU market, and no wonder with that insane pricetag ~ $40k, so not many of them driving around, similarly the plugin version will be too expensive. So, it's quite likely that there will be more first adopters interested in the full BEV segment than hybrids. Another rift in the US-EU auto market pecularities here we come..

[deMolay]

Junk-Junk-Junk. Get a Ford. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/busin ... f=business

[yesplease]

Good old reliable Ford. Who needs brakes anyway?

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', '[')url=http://s2.b3ta.com/host/creative/46786/1265292222/Toyota.gif]See photo in Gasmon's post[/url]

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', 'J')unk-Junk-Junk. Get a Ford. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/busin ... f=business

[Ferretlover]

In the past, Japanese businessmen have taken business errors/failures very seriously.
This morning, my DH said he heard that Toyota's new tagline was, "Nothing can stop us now!"

[dorlomin]

Toyatal Recal.







IGMC

[polka]

A couple unrelated thoughts:

1) This is the company that revolutionized quality control in manufacturing back in the 80s and 90s. Isn't it sad that public perception is limited to a few newsbites. Toyota did the right thing, investigated the problem, and recalled millions of cars. Yet the "meme" that emerged from all this is that Toyota sucks.... It's almost as baffling as the so-called climategate.

2) If you have time to dial 911, why why why don't you have time to think of putting the car in neutral or killing the ignition?

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
The fourth-generation Toyota Prius is manufactured at the company's Tsutsumi plant, a few kilometres south-east of Nagoya, around 100 minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen bullet train. From Tsutsumi's viewing gantries, two production lines stretch away into the distance. These halls house the trim workshop. Here, completed body shells roll in, are divested of their doors (which make their way in pairs along a separate line) and the interior, hybrid system, dashboard and seats are installed. The factory, which has been making Priuses since 2003, produces 430,000 cars a year. From 6.30am to 1am, it can turn out a Prius every minute. This is the Toyota Production System (TPS) at work, a fabled refinement that funnels the immense complexity of car-making into a series of simple stages. Each step is serviced using the just-in-time manufacturing process by the requisite parts supplier. The

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
The fourth-generation Toyota Prius is manufactured at the company's Tsutsumi plant, a few kilometres south-east of Nagoya, around 100 minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen bullet train. From Tsutsumi's viewing gantries, two production lines stretch away into the distance. These halls house the trim workshop. Here, completed body shells roll in, are divested of their doors (which make their way in pairs along a separate line) and the interior, hybrid system, dashboard and seats are installed. The factory, which has been making Priuses since 2003, produces 430,000 cars a year. From 6.30am to 1am, it can turn out a Prius every minute. This is the Toyota Production System (TPS) at work, a fabled refinement that funnels the immense complexity of car-making into a series of simple stages. Each step is serviced using the just-in-time manufacturing process by the requisite parts supplier. The