When did those incentives ever equal a free Tesla? If the US car industry followed the trucking one, we'd all be driving diesels now.
Since I have to spell it out. Commercial trucks using hydrogen does not guarantee passenger cars using it will succeed. I see renewable hydrogen happening. Not because we'll use it in cars, but because we need ammonia for fertilizer. I'm sure Toyota thinks it is great to be losing money on the Mirai.
Toyota lose money on a lot of cars, but they are still #2 in the world. The winners pay for the losers.
Hydrogen has a shot at success because infrastructure is needed is less and would be along set routes. It likely won't be in a form that hydrogen cars could use. The Kenworth FCEV has a range of just 350 miles. That is enough for its role as a drayage truck shuttling trailers around the LA port, but is far from enough for a long haul truck. The 500 mile range of the Tesla Semi is a minimum range that a truck transporting goods across country needs. Diesel trucks have ranges far longer than that; double wouldn't be unexpected. Most diesel trucks carry 200 gallons of fuel. After the engine consumes it, that is about 12,000MJ/kg of energy produced. For a PEM FCEV truck, it would need to carry about 150kg of hydrogen to put out that much energy. If using high pressure hydrogen like FCEV cars now use, it would take 90 minutes to refuel. Liquid hydrogen is more convenient and quicker. As it sits in the fuel tank, liquid hydrogen starts boiling, and needs to be vented to release pressure. Those venting losses aren't a big deal for a truck that is on the road most of the day and nearly every day of the year. For a personal car, it is. Go away for a week, and your car can be empty by the time you get back. So truck hydrogen stations will be liquid hydrogen, and while they could be made to fill cars with gaseous hydrogen tanks, the companies building the stations aren't going to pay for that ability on the off chance a hydrogen car makes it out to them.
so ... just curious, whoever the 1st loser is (2nd place) - do they pay to the winner? And who is that? in 1st place? .
Currently the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Dealers are charging $10k over sticker and can’t keep them on the lot for more than a few days. That’s a winner.
Did you actually mean the hybrid, or the Prime? There are only 5000 Rav4 Primes coming to the US this year. That's why dealers can price gouge. Toyota isn't going to get that money. The reason why this is happening because Toyota didn't secure the battery supply for the demand. They had to stop taking orders for it in Japan earlier this year. The Rav4 Prime is a winner, but one Toyota wasn't expecting because of their anti-plug bias. Now they aren't profiting from that short sightedness.They might when production ramps up, or they still might be battery constrained.
So why not spend some of their profits to ensure hydrogen will be a success? Or make a plug in FCEV while hydrogen stations are limited? Or just secure enough batteries for the demand of the Rav4 Prime everyone else saw coming?
Buy more so the price will go up! That’s the true reason Tesla Stock is high, people buying without seeing the writing on the walls. MEH.
Funny. How does Toyota plan to sell them outside of California in the US? Spend money lobbying other states to build hydrogen stations, or build them themselves? When ICE cars are so much cheaper, with refueling everywhere, "build it, and they will come" will not work. Tesla saw that.
