Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker, dies at 97

Re:Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker... by matt_s on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @09:05AM (#34803892)

I think Toyota's issues will just be supply chain around battery packs. They have already been designing and engineering hybrids for a decade or more. I don't think its a revolutionary change for them to remove combustion engine and accessories and go with all electric motors plus larger battery packs. If anything it might simplify internal designs. I'd rather they flow this through their internal typical processes and come out with a product that meets their historical standards rather than any "catch up" to the market.

Once they have a Corolla like EV platform I bet it will outsell most competitors and likely won't have gimmicky features.

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Re:Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker... by fomine3 on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @09:09AM (#34803938)

It was my thought before bZ4X was released. After I read reviews about it, I'm not sure.

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Re:Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker... by jillesvangurp on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @09:47AM (#34804494)

Only if they can produce it cost effectively and in large volume. This is going to be a learning curve that will take them years.

Hybrid cars are not the same as an EV. Toyota needs to start worrying about their existing revenue not drying up before they can master the same learning curve that other manufacturers have been trying to master (with varying degrees of success).

Corolla like EV platforms already exist. Several Chinese manufacturers sell those in their domestic market for prices as low as a few thousand per car. And several of those manufacturers are ramping up their exports to the US, Europe, and Australia.

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Re:Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker... by hindsightbias on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @11:15AM (#34805862)

Some analysts like Munro think legacies will take much longer to catch up to Tesla because they're evolving ICE designs/standards into their EVs and crippling them. Toyota is so huge they could have afforded a clean-sheet platform but waited too long so they'll fall into the same cycle.

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Re:Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker... by somerandomqaguy on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @12:30PM (#34807392)

They do have a clean sheet design: e-TNGA. The Toyota bZ4X and the Subaru Soltarra are both based on the design, along with the bZ3 and the upcoming Lexus RZ.

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Re:Shoichiro Toyoda, who turned Toyota into global automaker... by hindsightbias on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @04:27PM (#34810806)

e-TNGA just appears to be an e- added to commonize with the TNGA gasoline architecture.

> Now Terashi’s group is considering whether to drop the three-year-old e-TNGA architecture, created by modifying a gasoline car platform, in favor of a dedicated EV platform, people with knowledge of that work have said.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14790566

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