Auto industry toyota-eq-ev

Published on September 24th, 2012 | by Christopher DeMorro

12

The Bottom Drops Out? Toyota Electric Car Sales Nixed

The world has not embraced fully electric vehicles the way many analsyts have predicted, and it is causing quite a star in the auto industry. With Toyota’s announcement to severely curtail development of an electric version of the iQ microcar, the EV industry seems to be in dire straits indeed.

Announced way back in 2010, the Toyota/Scion eQ was to be Toyota’s full-fledged effort at selling an electric city car. But after no doubt watching Nissan’s own struggles with both sales and battery woes, Toyota’s conservative corporate culture no doubt decided the risk outweighed the reward.

Turns out the high price and limited range of electric cars is making them quite the hard sell. So instead of going after thousands of international sales, Toyota says it will sell just 100 eQ electric microcars in the U.S. and Japan. That leaves Toyota with just the RAV4 EV “compliance car” that will cost a lot of money to own OR lease.

That also leaves the plethora of battery builders without another potentially huge client in Toyota. Panasonic will be providing the batteries for the limited offering of eQ microcars, which is barely a drop in the bucket on the parched landscape of electric car sales. The eQ, which could cost as much as $46,000 in Japan (and who knows how much here) will reportedly have just 62 miles of range from its 12 kWh battery.

Toyota’s other electrified offering, the Prius Plug-In is selling at a reasonable clip in America. But in Japan Toyota is still far from its goal of between 35,000 and 40,000 Prius Plug-In annual sales. The RAV4 EV is expected to sell around 2,600 units in the next 3 years. These are not inspiring numbers. Then again, things looked iffy for the iQ EV over a year ago.

No matter how you slice it, electric vehicles are not looking all that great, giving many automakers reason to second-guess their viability. With Toyota now toning down sales and expectations for an electric car many had high hopes for, it seems like pure electric vehicles are increasingly being shunned by major automakers.

Source: Reuters

 



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About the Author

A writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs, can be found wrenching or writing- or esle, he's running, because he's one of those crazy people who gets enjoyment from running insane distances.


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  • Jcmarching

    The sky is falling! – Chicken Little. What is the wait list now for the Tesla S?

  • Nixon

    This car isn’t competitive with the Chevy Volt in the same price range, and the RAV4 EV is just a much better car for the little extra it is likely to cost.

    EV’s overall aren’t losers, THIS electric vehicle is a loser.

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrichrose Andrew Richard Rose

    Grow up Chris , Tesla sales are booming , Toyotas always been slightly dodgy over the fortunes of EV’s . You should swat up on the history of the RAV4ev before you write such rubbish !

    • Christopher DeMorro

      @ Andrew Richard Rose

      You miss my point. There are an abundence of battery makers, and Tesla (who already has a deal with Panasonic if I am not mistaken) is not going to produce enough volume in the next few years to support them. With Toyota backing off of EVs, and Nissan Leaf sales stalling (to put it kindly) the market for battery packs is shrinking at a rapid rate.

      As far as the RAV4 EV goes, I’m not the only person who thinks a $50,000 SUV EV with 100 miles of range doesn’t seem like a serious competitor. History is just that; history. I’m more a “What have you done for me lately?” kind of writer.

  • CogWheeler

    Mr. DeMorro,

    You are a writer, offering something to us. What have YOU done for US by echoing Reuters on this site? Their bias is as unmistakable as their will is to distort the facts about EV production costs.

    Have you factored in that Japanese produced EV’s have to compete in a local market that recently shut down all but two of its nuclear reactors? A market which, for lack of natural resources, must have its LNG shipped in at a cost of almost $14 per mmbtu?

    If you want to put a “business” lens on what the Japenese are doing, maybe consider what is happening to their domestic electricity market. Did you do the EV math, or “do for us” what the relative tranportation fuel costs look like, for them. I guarantee it looks nothing like the U.S., and probably had something to do with their production decisions.

    Don’t wait around for Reuters, or the AP, to be objective. That boat has left.

    • T Adkins

      I think he is keeping us informed about what other writers think of EV’s esp from a mainstream source like Reuters. Sure Reuters isnt where you want to go to hear good news about EV’s but so much of what they wrote and Chris shared is the truth. Ev’s arent where they should be yet, this is just reminder article of that. The road ahead is so tough that Toyota is choosing to put some Ev plans on hold. The eQ is set to cost about $46k in Japan, while you can get the low end Tesla S for $49.9k and go from 62 miles a charge to 160 miles a charge for a $4k difference.

      Sure it is sad that Japan shut down their reactors, I mean after all they did have the single worst nuclear power accident in recent times and as the world and the news waits for even a single human life to have been lost from the event due to radiation….. but they will keep waiting. Anytime they want to turn the lights back on and stop their people from dying from it being too hot or too cold, and if they want to stop importing LNG so they can stop wasting their money just turn it all back on.

      So Nissan is having sales and battery issues, this is true.
      Rav4ev isnt projected to make many sales this is true.

      Toyota is going to play it safe and ride high on the Prius.

      Not entirely sure why you dont enjoy some DeMorro today but hey he has written over a dozen articles for this site just this week and over 1000 articles since he started writing here. I may not always fully agree with Chris but he writes what he feels and he writes what is true, if there was something off in the Rueters article I am fairly sure he would mention it or even have the whole article be about what they got wrong.

      DeMorro doesnt need me or anyone to defend him or his writing, he can do that all on his own.

      • Christopher DeMorro

        @ T Adkins

        Thanks.

        Just…thank you.

    • Christopher DeMorro

      @ CogWheeler

      I’m bad at math. That’s why I write.

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