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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Let's talk about Toyota.
They have only built 1 EV (two if you include the Lexus RX which is just the same vehicle with a different branding). They've repeatedly said EVs aren't the answer and that hydrogen vehicles are the future (which has been shown to be completely asinine in previous posts). The EV that they did produce is purposefully aaaaaawwwwwful, and now they say their customers are telling them they don't want EVs. They've spent billions lobbying governments to delay electrification of transportation, and are outwardly anti-EV.
Global passenger car sales are declining. The only real growth stories in the auto industry are China, and EVs. And the growth story in China IS EVs. I'm not sure how sound of a strategy it is to go hard after market share in a declining segment, but here we are. There's been endless articles written about EV sales stalling out, but none of that appears to be true. Sales growth has decreased, but it's still growing fairly well. Take Ford, for example. The death of EVs was forecasted when Ford changed plans recently on developing a second F150 lightning facility in Canada to produce super duty trucks instead. However, lightning sales are up 86% year over year. In fact, overall vehicle sales for Ford are down 6% but their EV sales are up 18%. That doesn't sound like the death of EVs. The issue is expectations. Ford couldn't make them fast enough when they were producing 15,000 per year, so they made plans to make 150,000 within two years. They'll probably sell 40,000 this year, and sales are still increasing. That's still tremendous growth!
At a recent event for journalists, they only had one BZ4X and didn't have anything to say about it beyond showing it's existence. Their spokespeople constantly talk about how EVs are not right for "x" market because their grids are not fully renewable, even when that's misleading.
How long does this last before they become market laggards?
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I kinda understand the approach from Toyota (aside from the H bet). They basically achieved the pinnacle of building/selling ICE vehicles, particularly on the mechanical front. I can see why they wouldn't want to let that go easily, and it would take some hubris to assume that they could maintain that stature when playing catch up on a new tech - though they've largely managed to do so with their hybrids.
It's probably a no-win scenario though. I'm thinking of brands like Kodak and Blackberry, where the odds of them remaining 'champion' were probably low even if they put all their eggs in the basket of trying to compete in their evolving marketplace.