Toyota Falling Behind Rivals in Race to Go Electric

TOKYO — Despite Toyota’s image as the world’s greenest automaker, the company that brought us the Prius — totem of the environmentally conscious — has fallen behind in the race for the all-electric car.Mitsubishi Motors started leasing its all-electric vehicle, the i-MiEV, in June. Next year, Nissan Motor is set to release its electric car, the Leaf. But Toyota does not plan to introduce an all-electric car until 2012. Instead, later this year, it plans to introduce a plug-in electric-gasoline hybrid, and only a few hundred initially.
“Why is Toyota waiting on electric cars?” asked Tadashi Tateuchi, a former race car designer turned electric-car evangelist.
Electric technology could help determine winners and losers in the auto industry of the future, but Toyota has been highly skeptical of electrical vehicles.
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inspirion7 - 8/20/2009 12:38:47 AM

+1 Boost

And boy I got a great tactile feel for you. Its a tazzer Badgewhore and this is what you and Toyota will feel the day you wake the hell up and realize the world has moved beyond the Prius type of environmental vehicles. Toyota didn't have a clue and like Sony and the Beta VCR, they want to hold on to what works for them and milk it for all they can. It is easy for you to believe in a lie even it there isn't anything to back it up, "oh duh Toyota will have a break thru to make electric obsolete" like what the two-stroke you do because that is all there is, they are strokin' you.

WorldofLuxury - 8/20/2009 1:41:37 AM

+2 Boost

The article seems awfully confident in what its saying...

t_bone - 8/20/2009 9:21:58 AM

+1 Boost

As much as I'd love for Toyota to jump in now (as it would speed up the industry), I have to admit it is a smart business move.

What no one says about electrics is that they are so simple, so modular, that building one is practically a trivial task. So they are just waiting for the right price/performance on batteries and then they can overtake smaller players who got in earlier without any impact to their business.

theoptimisticpessimist - 8/20/2009 12:39:08 PM

-1 Boost

"Germany Commits To 1 Million Electric Cars On The Road By 2020"

http://www.autospies.com/news/Germany-Commits-To-1-Million-Electric-Cars-On-The-Road-By-2020-47120/

topneuro - 8/20/2009 12:54:02 PM

+1 Boost

USA projections for electric vehicles:
http://www.energy.gov/news2009/7749.htm

England projections for electric vehicles:
http://blog.whizzgo.co.uk/index.php/2009/04/17/governments-electric-car-plans-revealed/

Portugal projections for electric vehicles:
http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/has-portugal-solved-the-electric-car-problem/Content?oid=1120712