2025 EV Tacoma thread.

Google Motortrend's videos and articles on their off-road traverse across the entire USA with an R1T. It may help alleviate some of your concerns.

 

Just adding my .02 cents. The primary issue is the battery power. Remember when Telsa used all those laptop batteries for their first vehicle....I always said to myself that thing will die and never run again in 3 months. lol
But, I went from AGM to LiPo last year in my boat and kayak. That's a big difference because it went from almost 50 lbs of weight down to 17 lbs for a single battery. And it also has increased power and takes way less time to charge.
Also, Toyota and VW I believe has put billions into R&D for solid state. It'll be interesting to see what happens next. If you give me instant power, longer range, less time waiting to refuel, and less weight. I'm on board.

 

Imo, since I don't have the cash to burn I would hesitate buying an EV until solid state batteries are mainstream and Toyota is working hard on developing that technology. If our household needed a new vehicle beforehand (we also have an older Forester) I'd consider an EV as a city / commuting vehicle and use the gen 2 Taco for road trips. Right now I think EV trucks would work well as fleet vehicles or daily drivers, but as many have said the infrastructure and technology doesn't support exploring remote locations yet. But for those people who ponied up for a TRD Pro and use it as a mall crawler (as there are many who do), the EV Tacoma might be the best option for that premium / daily driver use case. Right now the practicality of EVs all depends on use case.

 

LOL, that's me 95% of the time since I don't live in the boonies. no offense taken of course! I'm spending my money....eff the kids and family....I'm not leaving crap to them! hahaha

 

Boy, this is a rather long thread, so I didn't read it all. Forgive me if this has already been brought up.
As I sit here in North East Ohio, in the stopped traffic, in the middle of a "blizzard" with 7 degree temperatures I wonder how long an electric vehicle could keep my heater running?
I also wonder how long the AC would work in 100+ degree temperatures, in stopped traffic. I personally have been in stopped traffic for up to 3 hours with the AC on and my fuel gauge barely moved.
Just a thought...

 

Why wonder? Just google it. This video was very illuminating.

https://youtu.be/02YRQyj3Hdg

 

Some more info here too

https://insideevs.com/news/560870/tesla-model3/

https://insideevs.com/features/559482/anti-ev-opinion-not-true/

 

What happens when you run out of juice on the road? Do you need to be towed to a charging station? Can you do a booster pack or some shit?

 

Tow to a charger or home or there's EV road assistance from Tesla and third party mobile emergency charging companies out there and starting up.

 

Hell yeah, spend it! That's what you work for . And of course I bring it up because the TRD packages are the only way to get the premium interior as well which is why I'm sure a lot of people go for it. I'd expect the EV version to be the same in that respect. No premium goodies come pre packaged in my SR5

 

Yeah towing will be expensive... similar to if you run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. US Grid not being able to handle more vehicles has been debunked. Extra battery weight is a concern, but the tech will mature... and it's not like the 1,200 lb payload I get today is at all good. The Rivian has that beat already. The 12V battery you cracked was likely a absorbent glass mat battery and probably not shielded in any way. Since the battery is so important in an EV, OEMs do a pretty good job protecting it... even the Nissan leaf has skid plates.

 

I see that camping and charging with an Ev could be a challenge. I camp with my pop up and mostly go to state park campgrounds. I usually have a site with at least a 20 amp power connection and often a 30 amp is available too. no reason I can't go out and explore the trail heads and bike trails with the EV truck and plug in over night and slow charge. I think its workable just a change in behaviours.

road trips too. I think 20 minutes for 200 miles of range is decent and you would need to work your charging time around driving breaks for stretching from sitting, potty breaks and meal breaks. use the time you are sitting there for something. its going to require lots of charging stalls along major highways I see that as a challenge and a land use issue as more people have evs. I see in the Video charging how they are going to keep idle cars that are done charging out of the bays, they are going to charge for idle time. The charge time is going to make cross county travel more difficult though. a situation where busses,plane and trains will maybe replace some of that.

 

Another fascinating video from Engineering Explained. At least he provides citations for all of his facts. You can't believe everything to watch on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/yTXsg0bUKUI

 

Until electricity can come from more natural sources and not fume building powerplants, EV’s are just an environmental pipe dream. Let’s not forget the awful fumes released from the lithium mines for the batteries and the horrible damage lithium battery disposal has on the environment.

Gas powered vehicles environmental footprint have come down significantly over the last decade, reducing their environmental impact and they’re not reliant on lithium and large powerplants.

EV's are also no way near affordable for the mass public, and most EV owners choose to lease them instead of owning them since there are still so many unknowns with lifespans and what not.

/end rant

 

While it's obviously slower to charge up an EV today, it's not as slow as you think it might be. As new high voltage vehicle architectures are rolled out (Porsche, Audi, Hyundai, Kia, GM, Lucid all have them). Charging speeds skyrocket and charging times drop. The new Hyundai IONIQ 5 gets 300 miles range in the RWD (250 in the AWD) and can charge to 80% in 18 mins.

When you're road tripping in an EV it's all about charging enough to make your destination or next stop, not to fill to 100% every time. This maximizes charging speeds and keeps your fill ups to 5-10 mins. I did a trip from SF to SLC a couple years ago. I filled up my tank 4 times to make the trip and it took me slightly less than 12 hours. If I repeated that trip today in a fast charging EV, it would take me about 13 h 20 mins. So about 1.5 hours slower or 12% longer. Not an outrageous difference, and we're still in the early days of EVs.

 

Valid topics. Some still concerning and being addressed. Some debunked. I think people need to be more informed before buying an EV that's for sure.

 

Solid State Batteries will be a game changer. They're coming soon.

 

This is a great video that basically debunks all these concerns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained

TL;DR - EVs take more emissions to make the vehicle than a gas vehicle (largely from the emissions to make the battery), but produce far fewer emissions than ICE vehicles (even if you only powered it on the dirtiest coal power). Also it's important to compare apples to apples and include not just the emissions from burning gas, but the emissions to extract, refine, and transport that gas to you. When you do this, EVs are always cleaner than ICE vehicles over their lifetime. Even when comparing a new EV to an used ICE vehicle, the EV will win out (see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2IKCdnzl5k&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained)

 

This is definitely an interesting video. I wonder when the US will imminent domain some mining locations and get to work.

 

Tesla charged 1.00 per minute after charging is complete. They give you 5 minutes to move.