NYT: Toyota’s hybrid strategy pays off
NYT: Toyota’s hybrid strategy pays off
Not long ago, it looked as if Toyota had fallen dangerously behind in electric vehicles. Tesla, the electric car pioneer, has grown rapidly and become the world’s most valuable automaker. Seeing Tesla’s success, other companies, such as General Motors and Ford Motor, concluded that large numbers of consumers were poised to switch to battery-powered cars and trucks and began investing tens of billions of dollars to catch up.
I have previously written about how battery-powered vehicles are a niche market. Range takes a big hit in cold weather, batteries are expensive and have limited life and charging takes a long time. These fundamental reasons will not go away with improved technology.
Toyota, however, was more deliberate — or lethargic, its critics would say. It has introduced just two fully electric models in the United States so far, betting that its gas-electric hybrids and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which it has become known for, would remain popular and were sufficient to address climate change for now.
I love that Toyota is deliberate. I bought my first Tacoma in 2001. Any problem area was deliberately corrected on my second Tacoma purchased in 2012. My third Tacoma, to be purchased soon, will be incrementally better.
Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, scorns hybrids, saying it makes no sense to have two propulsion systems under the hood. Consumers don’t seem to care. Toyota offers more than two dozen hybrid or plug-in hybrid models, and they make up almost 30 percent of its sales, much higher than at most other automakers.
Elon Musk is a genius. It’s difficult to understand why he doesn’t understand the fundamental issues with battery-powered cars. My hope is that he is pushing that technology because it will be necessary for his ultimate goal of colonizing Mars.
His complaint, that it makes no sense to have two propulsion systems under the hood, makes sense and is why I have some trepidation regarding hybrids. However, diesel locomotives have operated that way for decades.
Battery-powered cars are powered by electrical power plants. In the US, 18% of our electricity comes from nuclear power, 60% comes from fossil fuels. Wind and solar are niche sources. About 40% of that electrical energy is lost in the power lines coming to our homes. It is not clear that a battery-powered car uses less fossil fuel. The cars are also very expensive, so use more resources to produce.
A hybrid car has an obvious advantage that it shares with locomotives. While coming to a stop, kinetic energy is converted back to electricity to store in the battery. In an internal combustion engine, the kinetic energy is converted to heat and lost to the environment.
I will probably never own a hybrid. Being retired, I don’t drive as much and don’t care as much about the cost of gas. The additional complexity that comes with a hybrid is something I will avoid, but it does make much more sense than a battery-powered car.
Every car company has it’s own philosophy. I like that Toyota thinks for itself and bets on vehicles that customers will actually buy.