Red Sage
The Cybernetic Samurai
Fiat-Chrysler is [FOULED] because their CEO is actively, adamantly, and vehemently in direct public protest of both zero emissions and high fuel economy vehicles. The philosophy of the company, on both sides of the Atlantic, is that burning gasoline & diesel fuel as quickly as possible equals 'efficiency'. They believe that their goal should be to sell cars that are fire breathing, smoke churning, rubber burning, and gas guzzling and that is what their Customers have come to expect from them. It is their fundamental belief that government regulatory agencies all over the world are being unfair to them in particular and unreasonable in general and meddlesome overall for imposing requirements that state they must build anything that does not fit that mold. Essentially, they feel that as long as they can find Customers that want their cars & trucks as they are, that validates the design and philosophy and should not be curtailed by outside forces as a matter of free trade and freedom of expression.Ford and Toyota are trapped the worst, because they both have incredibly profitable ICE vehicle lines (truck/Camry). And, as you see, they're two of the three companies (the other being Fiat-Chrysler who's utterly clueless) who have no real EV program to speak of.
It isn't that General Motors and Ford, or even Mercedes-Benz and BMW, disagree with that philosophy. They just aren't as vocal and demonstrative of those points throughout their entire product lines. Prior to 2012, every BMW was a relative gas guzzler, all the way down to their least capable inline four cylinder powerplants.
GM, Ford, Toyota, and Volkswagen are all capable of manufacturing capacity on the order of 10,000,000 units per annum worldwide. Though the sales numbers are pitiful for their compliance cars, Ford and Volkswagen at the very least have managed to offer fully electric versions of their best selling passenger vehicles in recent years, Focus Electric and e-Golf. GM didn't make a fully electric version of the CRUZE or MALIBU, but at least they ventured forth to introduce the BOLT as a car capable of a substantial fully electric range above 200 miles.
Toyota, on the other hand, offers the single best selling vehicle of any configuration anywhere in the world, the Corolla, and there is no fully electric, plug-in hybrid, or hybrid version available in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world that I know of... As popular as the 'Prius Family' of cars has been the past twenty years, its sales are still dwarfed by the Corolla, both in the U.S. and worldwide. And despite what was at one time a close relationship with Tesla, Toyota has been openly reluctant to offer a battery electric vehicle of any sort in wide release. The RAV4 EV was an extremely limited edition compliance car, as was the first Prius plug-in, offered only in California to meet CARB regulations, and each disappeared once no longer needed. The Prius Prime is for now maintaining a hold on third place among 'plug-in' vehicles in the U.S. per InsideEVs. Though I really would prefer they make a distinction between pure electric and 'electrified' hybrid vehicles in their charts. Toyota seems committed to the 'use less gas' principle instead of adopting the 'use no gas' philosophy. But finally, it seems, Toyota has realized the folly of pursuing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars with the Mirai -- there is simply no way for that technology to 'win' when it comes to zero emissions vehicles.
The Germans are strongly wording their press releases, but the cars that appear from them are primarily 'electrified' plug-in hybrids offered in low quantities. Compliance cars. ICE vehicles with a plug stuck on them: BMW X5 xDrive40e, AUDI A3 Sportback e-tron, BMW 330e, Porsche Cayenne S-E, Mercedes-Benz S550e, BMW 530e, BMW 740e, Mercedes-Benz C350e, Mercedes-Benz GLE 550e, Porsche Panamera S-E... All meant to artificially boost their respective Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) scores. Pitiful.And, as we see, the German carmakers are all moving strongly toward EVs because they've been freed from their ICE heritage by scandal.
I doubt Ford much cares about 'just being a truck company'... Just as Porsche doesn't care that they are now just an SUV company. There is a philosophy that being #1 in a particular category is sufficient to maintain mindshare, marketshare, and profitability.It's playing out exactly as one would expect. If Ford doesn't move on EVs, they'll be cornered into just being a truck company, and eventually that will be removed from them as well.