For many years I fought against the thought of a 100% battery operated vehicle simply because it changes the way we operate our vehicles. Today, with electric vehicles, road trips are slower, you have to plan in advance in addition to limiting your freedom (from a plug or infrastructure). I actually commend Toyota for trying the hydrogen angle as their whole goal seems to have been limiting the change in lifestyle from gas to electric. Thinking about it, we would have kept the same infrastructure (gas stations) and refueling would be somewhat similar to what it is today. If oil companies had to evolve to say relevant - hydrogen would be their key (which also leads me to think that developing a hydrogen vehicle is highly highly supported by oil companies planning for a shift for consumers). Unfortunate for them, electric seems to be ahead of this battle.
To think that Toyota hasn’t thought of this would be silly, I think their battery delivery technology is probably not far back from Tesla, however, there is still plenty of money to be made with out the large overhead costs that testla is facing by focusing on good ole’ fashion Dino fuel. Guaranteed an all gas Camry’s profit margin % would be double than its electric brother.
This rant is going long but it makes sense I promise.
Furthermore, jaguar presented their all electric option that by the numbers is similar to a Tesla but has been deemed a failure which has delayed Mercedes in introducing their all electric vehicles to the North American market. Tesla is ahead of the game with their autopilot which I think sets them apart from the competition- while this holds true, i think other auto manufactures already have the technology but their risk and liability is far greater than Tesla’s if their car decides to drive itself into a wall and catch on fire. Políticians gave Toyota a miserable time about a “sticky gas pedal” , couldn’t even imagine a self driving car that kills its occupants. Somehow, Tesla is held to a different standard despite multiple failures to their system .