Some guesses about the state of electric car progress behind the scenes at leading global automakers. Will Subaru show Honda and Toyota the way to save the planet from global climate disaster and make Detroit a ghost town?
A GM PHEV? Highly doubtful, probably more hype like flex fuel vehicles.
Meanwhile Subaru, owned by Fuji Heavy, leapfrogs GM and Toyota right to electric cars. And GM has a signifigant stake in Fuji.
Maybe Toyota is not rushing PHEVs because they have an electric car to pull out of their hat? That battery excuse from Toyota is patently lame with at least 3 different nano layer, quick charge, lithium ions at or near the manufacturing stage.
Think about it: Why produce a PHEV with thousands of moving parts and an antiquated, 14% efficient internal combustion engine, when one could produce a quick charge plugin electric car with the same performance and range.
That runs on 75 cent per gallon of gas equivalent electric power. And has only on the order of 100s of moving parts.
The profit advantage (before gas prices made a rebate eat those profits up)of trucks and SUVs for ford and GM was based upon this same principle.
Same number of parts in an SUV as in a car, but the SUV sold at a heavy premium because of the larger size. The extra steel did not add signifigantly to the manufacturing cost, so the Detroit rust belt did ok versus Toyota's economy cars.
But as gas prices rise, the same phenomenon will kill Detrot. Toyota can produce electric cars with 100s of moving parts, instead of thousands, with a corresponding drop in manufacturing costs, and consumers can save 100s of bucks per month on gas that can go towards the car payments for their new electric cars.
But now, just as Subaru poineered the all wheel drive, SUV like economy car, they are now pioneering the electric car. Honda and Toyota are following suit. Will they miss out on the electric car? Not bluudy lackly (my cockney accent, hehey).
