It's amazing to me how quickly Toyota has changed from the environmental movement's poster boy to their whipping boy.
I got a long, rambling email today from CalCars in which they lambasted Toyota.
My first idea was to summarize and pick out the main points, but I don't think I could do it justice. So, here's the whole thing. . . .
=======
Toyota's new full-page newspaper ads show an open road, green fields,
an enormous blue sky, and the headline "WHY NOT?" followed by the poetic:
"Two words that are filled with possibilities
They can turn a challenge into an opportunity
An obstacle into an inspiration.
It's a question we ask ourselves at Toyota every day.
Because we're continuously looking for new ways to improve
what we do. By asking tough questions.
Can we make a car that has zero emissions?
Can we improve the economy of a community?
Can we enrich the lives of people around us?
Why not?"
And a link to
http://www.toyota.com/whynot -- where the repositioning campaign is found.
Meanwhile, in the race to bring PHEVs to market, Toyota is
disagreeing with elected officials, climate crisis and other
environmental advocates and companies that suggest we start today
with good enough solutions as the best way to move forward. Here are
reports on how three journalists have responded to all the new
obstacles Toyota has raised to PHEVs.
TOYOTA'S DEVOLUTIONARY PATH
Only a few months ago, Toyota was sounding positive about PHEVs (see
http://www.calcars.org/carmakers.html ). Now the company is turning
almost 180 degrees (ironic, since the PHEV's reverse gear is
all-electric!) Its responses increasingly communicate "not now...not
possible...give us credit for building the Prius...trust us." (Its
new TV ad, visible at the whynot URL shows a Prius effectively built
of biodegradable twigs.) And it's also saying, "by the way, forget
about our support of auto industry efforts to defeat higher CAFE
standards and California's law requiring lower-CO2 cars; ignore our
immensely profitable Tundra truck and don't look too carefully at our
Lexus muscle hybrids" (the latest of which, the 2MPG-better 600h at
$100K, was labelled aggressively as a greenwasher in the Wall Street
Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119395287391379578.html )
The campaign for PHEVs has clearly affected the company. It has
responded by putting a primitive PHEVs on the road -- with one-half
to one-third the range of after-market conversions. (Though even
these dozen prototypes, by confirming that Toyota can switch EV-only
mode up to 62MPH, get people even more excited about PHEVs and more
convinced Toyota could build better PHEVs anytime it wants to.) Its
new strategy is to criticize the shortcomings of its own car and
emphasize the impediments to building anything better.
BACK TO HYDROGEN!
For some time,Toyota has publicly and privately asked the California
Air Resources Board to change its requirement for more hydrogen fuel
cells cars. Its senior executives say the company is focusing its
development resources on hybrids. Surprisingly, at the same time,
Toyota has now begun to publicly link PHEVs with the remnant of its
fuel cell program. This gives journalists the message that both are
equally worthy of attention -- and both are far from practical today.
In its Japanese demonstrations of the PHEV Prius, it put both cars on
the same track for test drives.
Some journalists caught on to the game, like Martin Zimmerman from
the LA Times, who after saying that PHEVs "may have a lot to say
about how we get around in the future," looked at fuel cell cars and
saw "a sticker price of about $1 million. Maybe, as some critics like
to say, hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be. But
for a few brief minutes in the shadow of Fujisan, the future felt
awfully close at hand."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hybrid24oct24,1,7206635.story
Dennis Normile from The New York Times reflected many of Toyota's
perspective in two articles on the Japanese demos. In "Fuel Cell
Hurdle: Only the Price Tag," (which appeared online only Nov. 4 at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/automobiles/04CELL.html ), he
eagerly reports,
"We've got the systems engineering solved," Mr. Hirose, general
manager for fuel cell system engineering and development at Toyota,
said. "This is close to a commercial vehicle." A brief test drive of
this hydrogen-fueled Highlander at the company's Higashi-Fuji
Technical Center near Mount Fuji gave the impression that the goal of
delivering a showroom-ready model is indeed tantalizingly close.
The reporter loves the smooth, quiet (all-electric!) ride, then concludes:
Some challenges remain. Taiyo Kawai, also a Toyota fuel cell
engineer, explained that fuel cell durability and power density
needed to be improved. But the toughest nut to crack will be cost of
a fuel cell vehicle, which they say must drop a hundredfold to be
commercially viable. Mr. Kawai said that could be achieved by
improving production efficiency and reducing the use of expensive
materials like platinum.
Then there is the issue of building a hydrogen supply infrastructure,
something Mr. Hirose says will require "society-level decisions."
Toyota officials are confident that mass commercialization of fuel
cell vehicles will occur sometime after 2030.
OUR COMMENT: Why would Toyota bother to show a car it won't
mass-produce for 20 years?
MISINFORMATION ABOUT PHEVS
In the other report, in the Sunday print edition worldwide and at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/automobiles/04PLUG.html , "As
Hybrids Evolve, Gains Grow Elusive,' the same Dennis Normile swallows
the idea that benefits are uncertain and cites a list of obstacles
without evaluating them. We intersperse our comments:
And even when new twists in technology do arrive -- developments that
include plug-in hybrids, which can be recharged on household current
to give them more driving distance on batteries alone -- it may be
impossible to give buyers a measure of how much the advances help
because there is no test to measure their mileage.
A recent drive in Japan of a prototype Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid
demonstrated both Toyota's progress in developing vehicles that make
more use of their electric drive systems and the challenges in
bringing them to market.
By putting its considerable engineering and marketing muscle into
making the Prius the best-selling hybrid car, Toyota established a
reputation as a green leader among automakers. But that image has
been questioned by environmental groups that assail Toyota's push
into big trucks, its stance on proposed United States fuel economy
standards and its participation in a lawsuit challenging California's
right to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
Reasserting its position as the biggest seller of hybrids just before
the Tokyo auto show opened last month, Toyota let journalists drive
what is likely to be its next step toward what it calls sustainable
mobility -- a plug-in hybrid based on the current Prius that would be
more miserly with fuel and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But don't hurry down to your nearest Toyota dealer. Before the car
reaches showrooms it faces some tough road tests, and even when it
does arrive, it probably will not replace existing hybrid designs entirely.
[snip]
Toyota said that better batteries are needed to extend the car's
electric-mode range -- and even the most promising prospects may not
be good enough.
"Some of our engineers think we must go beyond lithium-ion," said
Katsuaki Watanabe, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation,
referring to what is now the leading battery technology for electric vehicles.
OUR COMMENT: Anyone tracking developments among battery companies and
other automakers will be astounded by this upping the ante. The
source is Pres. Watanabe, but he keeps some space between "some
engineers" and his own views. Is Toyota really now promoting the idea
that no type of lithium-based battery is practical? Or perhaps the
journalist misunderstood and Pres. Watanabe means Toyota engineers
want the company to "go beyond" the lithium-cobalt batteries
available to it through its Panasonic joint venture, which have far
more significant safety issues than nanophosphate lithium and other
batteries already on the market in small quantities.
=== continued next message ===
I got a long, rambling email today from CalCars in which they lambasted Toyota.
My first idea was to summarize and pick out the main points, but I don't think I could do it justice. So, here's the whole thing. . . .
=======
Toyota's new full-page newspaper ads show an open road, green fields,
an enormous blue sky, and the headline "WHY NOT?" followed by the poetic:
"Two words that are filled with possibilities
They can turn a challenge into an opportunity
An obstacle into an inspiration.
It's a question we ask ourselves at Toyota every day.
Because we're continuously looking for new ways to improve
what we do. By asking tough questions.
Can we make a car that has zero emissions?
Can we improve the economy of a community?
Can we enrich the lives of people around us?
Why not?"
And a link to
http://www.toyota.com/whynot -- where the repositioning campaign is found.
Meanwhile, in the race to bring PHEVs to market, Toyota is
disagreeing with elected officials, climate crisis and other
environmental advocates and companies that suggest we start today
with good enough solutions as the best way to move forward. Here are
reports on how three journalists have responded to all the new
obstacles Toyota has raised to PHEVs.
TOYOTA'S DEVOLUTIONARY PATH
Only a few months ago, Toyota was sounding positive about PHEVs (see
http://www.calcars.org/carmakers.html ). Now the company is turning
almost 180 degrees (ironic, since the PHEV's reverse gear is
all-electric!) Its responses increasingly communicate "not now...not
possible...give us credit for building the Prius...trust us." (Its
new TV ad, visible at the whynot URL shows a Prius effectively built
of biodegradable twigs.) And it's also saying, "by the way, forget
about our support of auto industry efforts to defeat higher CAFE
standards and California's law requiring lower-CO2 cars; ignore our
immensely profitable Tundra truck and don't look too carefully at our
Lexus muscle hybrids" (the latest of which, the 2MPG-better 600h at
$100K, was labelled aggressively as a greenwasher in the Wall Street
Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119395287391379578.html )
The campaign for PHEVs has clearly affected the company. It has
responded by putting a primitive PHEVs on the road -- with one-half
to one-third the range of after-market conversions. (Though even
these dozen prototypes, by confirming that Toyota can switch EV-only
mode up to 62MPH, get people even more excited about PHEVs and more
convinced Toyota could build better PHEVs anytime it wants to.) Its
new strategy is to criticize the shortcomings of its own car and
emphasize the impediments to building anything better.
BACK TO HYDROGEN!
For some time,Toyota has publicly and privately asked the California
Air Resources Board to change its requirement for more hydrogen fuel
cells cars. Its senior executives say the company is focusing its
development resources on hybrids. Surprisingly, at the same time,
Toyota has now begun to publicly link PHEVs with the remnant of its
fuel cell program. This gives journalists the message that both are
equally worthy of attention -- and both are far from practical today.
In its Japanese demonstrations of the PHEV Prius, it put both cars on
the same track for test drives.
Some journalists caught on to the game, like Martin Zimmerman from
the LA Times, who after saying that PHEVs "may have a lot to say
about how we get around in the future," looked at fuel cell cars and
saw "a sticker price of about $1 million. Maybe, as some critics like
to say, hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be. But
for a few brief minutes in the shadow of Fujisan, the future felt
awfully close at hand."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hybrid24oct24,1,7206635.story
Dennis Normile from The New York Times reflected many of Toyota's
perspective in two articles on the Japanese demos. In "Fuel Cell
Hurdle: Only the Price Tag," (which appeared online only Nov. 4 at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/automobiles/04CELL.html ), he
eagerly reports,
"We've got the systems engineering solved," Mr. Hirose, general
manager for fuel cell system engineering and development at Toyota,
said. "This is close to a commercial vehicle." A brief test drive of
this hydrogen-fueled Highlander at the company's Higashi-Fuji
Technical Center near Mount Fuji gave the impression that the goal of
delivering a showroom-ready model is indeed tantalizingly close.
The reporter loves the smooth, quiet (all-electric!) ride, then concludes:
Some challenges remain. Taiyo Kawai, also a Toyota fuel cell
engineer, explained that fuel cell durability and power density
needed to be improved. But the toughest nut to crack will be cost of
a fuel cell vehicle, which they say must drop a hundredfold to be
commercially viable. Mr. Kawai said that could be achieved by
improving production efficiency and reducing the use of expensive
materials like platinum.
Then there is the issue of building a hydrogen supply infrastructure,
something Mr. Hirose says will require "society-level decisions."
Toyota officials are confident that mass commercialization of fuel
cell vehicles will occur sometime after 2030.
OUR COMMENT: Why would Toyota bother to show a car it won't
mass-produce for 20 years?
MISINFORMATION ABOUT PHEVS
In the other report, in the Sunday print edition worldwide and at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/automobiles/04PLUG.html , "As
Hybrids Evolve, Gains Grow Elusive,' the same Dennis Normile swallows
the idea that benefits are uncertain and cites a list of obstacles
without evaluating them. We intersperse our comments:
And even when new twists in technology do arrive -- developments that
include plug-in hybrids, which can be recharged on household current
to give them more driving distance on batteries alone -- it may be
impossible to give buyers a measure of how much the advances help
because there is no test to measure their mileage.
A recent drive in Japan of a prototype Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid
demonstrated both Toyota's progress in developing vehicles that make
more use of their electric drive systems and the challenges in
bringing them to market.
By putting its considerable engineering and marketing muscle into
making the Prius the best-selling hybrid car, Toyota established a
reputation as a green leader among automakers. But that image has
been questioned by environmental groups that assail Toyota's push
into big trucks, its stance on proposed United States fuel economy
standards and its participation in a lawsuit challenging California's
right to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
Reasserting its position as the biggest seller of hybrids just before
the Tokyo auto show opened last month, Toyota let journalists drive
what is likely to be its next step toward what it calls sustainable
mobility -- a plug-in hybrid based on the current Prius that would be
more miserly with fuel and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But don't hurry down to your nearest Toyota dealer. Before the car
reaches showrooms it faces some tough road tests, and even when it
does arrive, it probably will not replace existing hybrid designs entirely.
[snip]
Toyota said that better batteries are needed to extend the car's
electric-mode range -- and even the most promising prospects may not
be good enough.
"Some of our engineers think we must go beyond lithium-ion," said
Katsuaki Watanabe, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation,
referring to what is now the leading battery technology for electric vehicles.
OUR COMMENT: Anyone tracking developments among battery companies and
other automakers will be astounded by this upping the ante. The
source is Pres. Watanabe, but he keeps some space between "some
engineers" and his own views. Is Toyota really now promoting the idea
that no type of lithium-based battery is practical? Or perhaps the
journalist misunderstood and Pres. Watanabe means Toyota engineers
want the company to "go beyond" the lithium-cobalt batteries
available to it through its Panasonic joint venture, which have far
more significant safety issues than nanophosphate lithium and other
batteries already on the market in small quantities.
=== continued next message ===
