Toyota seemed to be avoiding EVs, but is now ready to take over the market.

Rarely does a company enjoy enough success to coast on today’s profits while leisurely planning for tomorrow. But Toyota, currently riding a glorious flood of money from its current lineup, is planning its EVs of the future. Toyota has long been the industry leader for hybrids and hydrogen cars, but EVs have remained conspicuously absent from its dealer lots. For a while, it seemed like Toyota’s management was sure that the car-buying public would get fed up with battery-powered EVs, and therefore refused to bother making one. However, the company apparently plans a dazzling return to EVs. Toyota’s current electric vehicle plans are so cutting-edge that science isn’t ready yet.

When it comes to EVs, Toyota isn’t bothering with today but bracing for tomorrow. The company is basing its long-term plans on solid-state batteries and hydrogen. Science is not yet ready for the former (producing a car-worthy solid-state battery has proven formidably difficult), and the world is not ready for the latter (how many towns have hydrogen fueling stations?). It’s the automotive equivalent of purchasing land in some miserable semi-rural area because it’s where urban development is headed in a decade or two.

It’s easy to dismiss this by stating that Toyota has resolutely stuck with hybrids and ICE, and only barely pushed out a single EV until now. However, as aforementioned, the company is currently the top car seller on the planet. This is not the time to ax half the lineup and completely revise the rest. Instead, Toyota has quietly taken its profits and poured them into product development. When its current lineup begins to slump, Toyota will be ready. But for now, it would be folly to shut down the production lines that bring in more money than any other manufacturer in the industry.

How Toyota's 745-mile Solid-state Batteries Changed Its EV Fortunes - Original Article by James O’Neil: https://www.topspeed.com/toyotas-745-...

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Written by: Jean Bernard
VO’d by: Tim Blaine
Edited by: Jean Bernard

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