🚖Toyota Chairman Tells Der Spiegel EVs Are Not Ready For Mass Production Yet, Too Expensive & Too Slow To Charge .
In keeping with earlier comments from Toyota execs about electric vehicles,
Toyota Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada was recently quoted by the noted German publication Der Spiegel as saying that plug-in electric vehicles are not yet ready for mass production and sale.
“Battery-powered cars with a long range are very expensive and it takes a long time to charge them,” Uchiyamada stated. “Such cars do not fit in our program.”
The Toyota Chairman also noted that his company didn’t view Tesla as an enemy or as a role model, but rather perhaps as a problem for the German auto manufacturers.
“Tesla is not our enemy and not our role model,” Uchiyamada continued. “I think it’s the German manufacturers that rather see Tesla as a competitor.”
That’s seemingly a true statement in that the market share that Tesla has been stealing in recent years has largely been that of luxury German auto manufacturers, but it has also been taking away Toyota Prius buyers — a lot of them.
The Tesla Model 3 will do so to an even greater degree.
CleanTechnica