ok i know it's OT, but i just had a deja vu checking out Tideland's 'getting to know the new Prius' link. Seems the Prius head engineeer -Toyoshima-san is sport'n the same old fashion haircut that bill gates had (maybe back around the mid 1980's) & finally ditched - got with modern times. . . . . little on the mopey-floppy side. I'm trying to find a link - a connection - a rational, that's all . . . why toyota can't get with the times & do what several other manufacturers are doing - a 200+ range EV. The haircut ... it must be part of the puzzle. .
Well think of the home market lol. Remember that Toyota is a Japanese company. It's not American, it's not European. In Japan, household plugs are 100V. It will take forever to charge an EV at home. Not everyone has a garage but anyone who has an EV needs to install a home charger (preferably waterproof since it'll probably sit outside somewhere at the side of a building... assuming there's enough clearance in the first place). This is why DCFC is popular there (with CHAdeMO). Europe is primed for electrification because their household plug is 220/240V so they don't need to install a home charger. But of course it also depends on how many middle class Europeans have a garage for their vehicles (probably townhouse/rowhouse or single detached). I don't actually know so maybe a few of our European members can fill us in (I suspect it varies widely from country to country).
