Monday, September 24, 2012

Dear GM: "Toyota drops plan for widespread sales of electric car"

For pithy commentary see HT below.
From Reuters:

Toyota Motor Corp has scrapped plans for widespread sales of a new all-electric minicar, saying it had misread the market and the ability of still-emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands.

Toyota, which had already taken a more conservative view of the market for battery-powered cars than rivals General Motors Co and Nissan Motor Co, said it would only sell about 100 battery-powered eQ vehicles in the United States and Japan in an extremely limited release....MORE
..."The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge," said, Uchiyamada, who spearheaded Toyota's development of the Prius hybrid in the 1990s....
Mr. Uchiyamada is Toyota's Vice Chairman.

HT: FutureLawer--
"Toyota is in the business of making and selling cars. It does not build cars that don't meet customer's expectations. So, when Toyota drops the all electric car plans from its list of things to do, and cites the deficiencies in Lithium Ion battery technology, you can believe it."...MORE