Toyota plans major electric car roll outs Toyota is banking on a big jump in the price of oil: it said today that it plans to launch rather a lot of new e-cars by 2015. The strategy will see the Japanese car giant "expand [its] line of hybrid models, launching about ten more by 2015". "About ten", eh? Nice to see Toyota likes to be precise. In addition to the …
a) Toyota's marketing has gone bark-ing mad.
b) Good to see them branching out into new technology
c) Is this an attempt to turn over a new leaf?
d) Are they barking up the wrong tree with this new e-car focus?
Thank you, I'll be here all week, more's the pity for you lot.
Yes, that's the sound the whales make when they're being harpooned. Thank you.
OTOH, i have owned several new Toyotas over the years and never....not even once... have I heard from them as to whether I'm happy or not with the vehicle, do i think anything needs to be fixed, did I have any particular problem they should know about, etc. So, all that being said; they're off my "to buy" short list from now on.
AC: That's odd, I've bought three new Toyotas, and each time there has been follow-up contact with questionnaires asking all of those questions. Also, the staff at the dealership are keen to spend time with us and chat over aspects of the car and their service.
Overall, I've been very impressed with both Toyota and the dealership, compared to previous experiences with other marques. It helps that their cars are very, very well built, too.
GJC
My dear old mater has had two yaris (is there a plural of yaris ?). With the first one she got great service, however with the second one (bought on the back of the ownership experience from the first) she got the complete opposite with the result that when it came time to change her car she moved to Honda.
If you want to commute less than 20 miles or so through towns and citys at 30mph or less every day then there are practical electric motorbikes. If on the other hand you want to scream up and down the motorway at motorway speeds for more than an hour then you are out of luck.
Having ridden a ebike for the past year and a half (due to an acute awareness of rising costs and falling wages (and I include the rising cost of insurance, tax & mot not just fuel) I am starting to change my expectations of what a practical electric vehicle is. It is one that full fills a need, a specific journey, in my case, the commute, rather than a replacement for a 'drive for hours and fill up in minutes' liquid fuelled car. I suspect it will be a long time before electric vehicles can provide that kind of convenience without relying on internal combustion.
In the mean time, for me at least, the convenience of conventionally fuelled vehicles is reserved for long journeys.
that to ride an eBike that exceeds 14mph you need
insurance,
tax disc (very cheep),
mot if the vehical is over 3 years old
a motorcycle license or CBT & L plates
an approved motorcycle helmet
V5
Number plate
and all the rest
otherwise you are illegally riding a moped or motorcycle , this even goes for push bike conversion kits. Yes it sucks but that is the Law as it stands. However it should be possible to make a very boring cheep electric powered motorcycle with equivalent performance and range of a small car as it could be much lighter then a car. Something the equivalent of a 125cc - 400cc commuter bike for people who need to maintain the national speed limit and reliably travel up to about 100 miles a day under normal driving conditions (requires about a gallon of petrol for a small motorcycle without trying to eco-drive it). So far this has not been achieved which makes me very sceptical that an electric car that has to carry all that extra weight is a viable technology.
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