Toyota investing nearly $400 million in TX plant

Need solid-state batteries to pan out or some other big leap in battery tech for electric cars to beat out ICE in the next 5-10 years. When you can go 500-1000 miles on a charge that's when the mass switch over happens. Otherwise it will still be some type of hybrid. My armchair thoughts.

I look forward to the day everyone is in a self driving car and traffic is a thing you tell your grand kids about.

 

Who can do even 500 miles in their 3G Tacoma.

Jeezuzz

 

I'm lucky if i get 280 lol

 

No but filling up with gas doesn't take as long as recharging a battery.

 

Doubt it. The press release from a while ago basically said it was more of a common subframe scenario as I remember.

None of them have been. 1st to 3rd gen.

 

If we get to the point were the electric car is adopted on mass there will be companies that set up charging stations in every parking lot. Going out of your way to go to a gas station would be a thing of the past.

I could see some gas stations transform into some kind of lunch stops or coffee shops with 15-30 min quick chargers... or what ever is popular around that time.

 

How long does it take to swap a battery pack in a drill? That’s where this is all heading.

 

And thank god. Think of the rust!!!!

 

No battery recovers from a deep discharge in 15 minutes; this would only work on short trips. Going to a gas station for five minutes is a lot faster than waiting hours and the useful energy I get out of gasoline won't go down just because it's cold out.

No, I don't think that moving to swapping a $20,000 battery is where this is heading. Even Tesla gave up on that.

 

I don't know enough about it have any intelligent argument. I'd just "ass"ume at the point in the future when or if its mass adopted these problems would have been figured out by some new battery tech. As of today its not there, you are correct.

 

Fixed it for ya

 

Exactly, this guy gets it!

Tacomas currently outsell the competition in droves, why would Toyota feel any pressure to change things up with the current success of the current gen. Change happens slow, look at the tundra which is on it's what, 20th production year!?

Not only does it not make financial sense, but long life cycles also help keep our resale values up. Nothing good comes from quick changes in automotive. Just look at Ford and GM.

So for all our sakes, let's stop this ridiculous rumour.

 

Individual automobile ownership will decline, especially once autonomous vehicle tech reaches maturity.
A few enormous manufacturers will lease fleets to several franchises per state. These will be rented through an app. No more need for a garage and with such overpopulation who can afford their own home with a real yard anyway?

 

Agree, but that’s YEARS down the road before becoming a reality. And I predict autonomous long haul tractor trailers are at least a decade away.

 

Every part of that sounds awful lol

 

I know this is getting off topic, but yes if 100 million people bought electric cars tomorrow the grid would be in horrible shape. What the articles show is that utilities are aware of the issue electric cars pose on the grid, they are already taking action and upgrading the grid, and the utility companies aren’t specifically worried about it. They realize that they have a number of years if not decades to upgrade the grid before electric cars outnumber ICE, and will likely be well prepared by then.

 

Right, so it's not an issue because for the 100+ years that electric cars have been around they have no market share. The articles just kind of glossed over the numerous issues and there is no utility is doing much of anything to get ready for 100 million electric cars. No one is building any significant amount of infrastructure to charge electric cars either.

 

Where's my flying car?
I want my flying car, damn it!

 

It’s not just the power grid. How many houses have adequate capacity to support 2 50a car chargers?

 

Yes they do ! I gots one