Toyota to Go Bold In Bid to Revive Flagging Sales

Smart move. Solar cells have tumbled in price over the last few years and this is a bit of a no brainer for a true electric. It may not be able to power the whole car just yet, but it will extend the range on plugins. Limited range has always been the bugaboo that's given people reservations about all electrics. Even if the solar input only extends range 5-10 miles, combined with other innovations, the range inches closer and closer to range of a gas powered car.

A EV uses about 250-300 Watt-Hours per mile traveled. A square meter of solar panels might only generate 800 watt-hours a day in the best case scenario.

I'll believe it when I see the plug-in model for sale at my local dealership first.

Unfortunately, GMs strategy is right. Consider the following:

New product development from prototype to showroom floor takes a minimum of 5 years, and usually takes much longer than that. For example, the Ford Probe was a concept car for about 5 years, then it took another 5 years between the final concept and production. The volt by contrast, was first demonstrated in 2007 and is expected to be released in 2010. This is an example of a product that's getting fast-tracked.

Now, let's consider how long this recession will last.

The maximum duration of any recession since the 1800s was the Depression, clocking in at 10 years. There hasn't been a recession longer than 2 years since then, largely due to better understanding and management of recessions by the government.

So either Toyota's decision to innovate themselves out of their loss is not actually what they're doing, or it's a snap decision made based on emotion rather than reason. Alternatively, it has as more to do with how Japan's economy has been in a recession for an extended period of time, exacerbating their problems.

At any rate, I'd expect them to innovate some cheaper cars, rather than greener ones.

Ernie makes some good points, however, I suspect that the flailing economy will not only spur the development process into what we call in the software industry "rapid development", and Toyota is undoubtedly more than a few months into the planning process, already. It is my hope that the new presidential administration will make energy independence more compelling (dare I say profitable?) and the worldwide populace will become ever more insistent on more fuel efficient and fossil fuel independent vehicles. I like to think that we have turned a corner and will not go back to the same complacency that we experienced after the gas shortages of the 80's.

it doesn't matter that the solar cells will not independently power the car in-motion. many trips are for a few short miles and then the car sits there for several hours. this is a perfect way to keep the batteries topped-up for free. anyone want to do a quick calc on how many miles a rooftop panel can add to a car if it gets 8 hours of sunshine (between am/pm commutes). of course, now you'll want to park your car in the sun! so, can't these cars come equipped with retractable windshield and rear-window shades that also have solar cells in them? that would double the surface area for solar collection.

more importantly, it pushes the energy efficiency feature of cars because buyers will be looking to reduce the time they need to be plugged in. can you imagine manufacturers advertising their cars by how many "free" miles their car can drive on an eight-hour sun charge. 8, 10, 20? live less than 10 miles from work and there's no plug-ins needed all week. of course, if you live less than 10 miles from work, you really should be in a bicycle!

Ernie: GM is a dinosaur on the verge of extinction. They make awful cars that have to be sold at a loss otherwise no one would touch one. Do you honestly think their sales will rebound to their prior levels after the recession?

Also, it's quite possible that auto sales for the entire industry will take longer to recover even when the US eventually comes out of recession, which I'm willing to bet will be longer than two years.

"because the alternative is for automakers to find innovative ways to entice people to buy existing models--which seems to be GM's sole strategy at the moment."

an outright lie... gm is doing nothing innovative to entice people to buy their shitty cars...

Hi all,

This is my first time commenting though I am an avid reader. I live in Oklahoma City, the state with the highest margin of support for John McCain and one of the most car-centered lifestyles of the country (I can´t imagine a place with less sidewalks, bike paths, walkable distance, or public transportation).

Anyway, the attitude towards cars like these is really negative here. Efficiency just doesn´t matter when gas only ever reached $3.50 here, even during summer of 2008. The car sales equaled truck sales in February nationwide, but it did not in Oklahoma. We are always behind the curb on these things (we are also one of the fattest, most uninsured, uneducated, and poorest states).

Oklahomans are not going to change how they live without taxing the usage of cars and making it truly expensive to drive SUVs and trucks. Furthremore, these electric cars are not going to save a country with an obesity epidemic, a crumbling infrastructure, and 40,000 people lost to car accidents every year. Electric cars won´t make us healthier or safer, and in the short run they won´t even make us more sustainable. Thumbs down!

ok, i found something: approximately 20 miles on a 6 hour charge of full sun (difficult but possible) based on a recent aftermarket option:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/05/31/putting-a-solar-roof-on-your-prius-go-20-miles-on-battery-powe/

Ernie's comment:
'Unfortunately, GMs strategy is right.'
Given that Toyota has a history of making the right decisions for most of the last thirty years whilst GM hasn't.
And the fact that the Prius exists in comparison with GMs vapourware Volt; suggests to me that Toyota's strategy might be better...

A product development cycle of five years? Maybe in the sixties, when we all had three-martini lunches and secretaries. This could be concepted in days, computer-rendered in weeks, computer tested in the same amount of time, and fabbed almost immediately after that. The big problem would be financing and market testing, except that, duh, it's Toyota. The days of Fordism are over.

Anon and thespyofcharles, I'm curious what you think of VW. They perennially rank near the bottom in quality (well below GM), have lost money in the US market year after year, and most of their products rank in the bottom half of their class in efficiency.

GL - VW has improved. My Mom's 96 Golf was overengineered and not built with care, but they've very much evened the two processes up, according to other people who own them.

They are not, however, long-lived like Volvos.

Nathan: you have Sooner football, tho.

You do what you can! I hear stories of bicyclists being run off the road in Texas out of spite, but rest assured the same kind of people are everywhere in the Northeast too. Everyone has someone like that in their family or their social set. All you can do is live your life as you wish and people who know and respect you will eventually be convinced. After all, Will Rogers was from Oklahoma, and Bill O'Reilly's from New York!

Ernie is ignoring the other factors besides the economy. In 5 years the brief holiday we are getting in gas prices will be over and the vehicles that are least dependent on gas will be the ones that people will need/want. A cheap car that you can't afford to fuel will be useless.

I would not be surprised if the big transportation revolution in this country turns out to be an electric bike/scooter system that has public transport take you (and your personal vehicle) distances over 5 miles and everything under that is a quick scoot. The time lost in lower top speeds would more than be made up by the lack of rush hour traffic.

In Miami Beach the traffic/parking problem is getting bad enough that riding/parking a bike/eScooter is almost always faster for any trip under 5 miles.

A car that you can't afford is useless to. With a crappy economy, plummeting wages even during an "economic boom", rising resource costs, it is hard to see how people can afford to drive much longer.

It is time people realize the age of the automobile is over so we stop wasting our money and resources building roads, highways and electric cars and instead invest in the transportation solutions of of the future; high-speed rail, rapid transit and cycling.

And we are looking at things bass-ackwards. Transport demand is a function of inter-coordination between communities. You don't need as much transport within your own community. its going to happen that local community life becomes more economically efficient as transportation costs rise, this will cut demand for transportation. We shouldn't worry so much about the cost of our commute, but what and where our job is going to actually be.