Toyota keeps marketing its hybrids as self-charging hybrids. Because all-electric cars suck and most drivers get stranded on the side of the roads, right?
We all remember those days when Hollywood celebrities bought Toyota Prius to show their green credentials. Nowadays, by refusing to adapt to change, Toyota completely lost this very influential niche to Tesla. This niche is even more influential now with the massification of social media.
Toyota’s recurrent argument for not adopting BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) is completely false. Toyota says that current Li-ion battery technology isn’t good enough to produce great electric cars, while at the same time continues to use the obsolete nickel-metal hydride battery technology in most of its hybrids…
Not having the perfect battery technology didn’t prevent Toyota from making hybrids, yet it seems to prevent Toyota to produce BEVs… Waiting for the perfect technology is just an excuse to keep the status quo.
In the meantime, Toyota keeps losing previously loyal customers to Tesla.
Anyway, in the advert below you can see the amazing “self-charging” Toyota Corolla Hybrid and an EV driver stranded in the desert.
I still remember when I saw a Toyota’s high-rank employee saying that the company didn’t like BEVs because they were very simple, even startups could make them, while good hybrids were very complex and required the knowledge that only Toyota had. This is why I think that Toyota hates BEVs, they’ll result in more competitors.
Anyway, a world where everything runs on gas, but is also “self-charging” would be very similar to this one imagined by Nissan… Great right?
While it’s annoying, I’m not even outraged like some EV fans with Toyota’s anti-EV propaganda. To me is just sad to see Toyota – that once was an innovator – becoming obsolete day by day, just like Nokia or Kodak.
