Hydrogen Powered Cars available in California

Quote: kenarman

CARBON BAD We are all going to die of Global Warming if you live in a coastal city you are going to drown. None of them care about your lungs. It the world as we know it ending that has them upset.

Quote: Ben Jervey Mar 12, 2019

Toyota Is Losing the Electric Car Race, So It Pretends Hybrids Are Better

There are at least 12 car companies currently selling an all-electric vehicle in the United States, and Toyota isn’t one of them. Despite admitting recently that the Tesla Model 3 alone is responsible for half of Toyota’s customer defections in North America — as Prius drivers transition to all-electric — the company has been an outspoken laggard in the race to electrification.

Now, the company is using questionable logic to attempt to justify its inaction on electrification, claiming that its limited battery capacity better serves the planet by producing gasoline-electric hybrids.

For years, Toyota leadership has shunned investment in all-electric cars, laying out a more conservative strategy to “electrify” its fleet — essentially doubling down on hybrids and plug-in hybrids — as a bridge to a future generation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. As Tesla, Nissan, and GM have led the technological shift to fully battery electric vehicles, Toyota has publicly bashed the prospects of all-electric fleets. (See, for instance, the swipe the company took at plug-in vehicles in this recent Toyota Corolla Hybrid commercial.)

Last week, at the Geneva Auto Show, a Toyota executive provided a curious explanation for the company’s refusal to launch a single battery electric vehicle. As Car and Driver reported, Toyota claims that it is limited by battery production capacity and that “Toyota is able to produce enough batteries for 28,000 electric vehicles each year — or for 1.5 million hybrid cars.”

In other words, because Toyota has neglected to invest in battery production, it can only produce enough batteries for a trivial number of all-electric vehicles.

Due to this self-inflicted capacity shortage, the company is forced to choose between manufacturing 1.5 million hybrids or 28,000 electric cars. Using what Car and Driver called “fuzzy math,” the company tried to justify the strategy to forgo electric vehicles (EVs) on environmental grounds.

As Toyota explained it, “selling 1.5 million hybrid cars reduces carbon emissions by a third more than selling 28,000 EVs.”

Quote: AZDuffman

Oh, please. You would never have made it in the 70s when we actually breathed leaded gas exhaust and survived. As to filming idling vehicles that is why I do not want to live in a city like NYC. Be careful what you wish for there.

Quote: DRich

I bought a new vehicle yesterday and it has the auto engine shutoff feature when you stop. Kind of annoying.

Quote: DRich

I bought a new vehicle yesterday and it has the auto engine shutoff feature when you stop. Kind of annoying.

Quote: Gandler

If its a Ford there should be a button somewhere with an "A" and circle type thing that you can press that turns this off (engine stays running).

Other brands probably have a similar button.

Quote: DRich

Yes, the one I bought is a Honda and it does have a button to disable the feature. The problem is that every time that you start the car the feature reverts back to on so every time you drive it you have to remember to turn it off.