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A proposal in the big bill is to start annual federal fees on cars. $200 for EVs, $100 for hybrids, and $20 on all others. The last won't start until 2031, but the rest are immediate.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/04/29/congress/house-transportation-reconciliation-text-gas-tax-00315222

Previous thread on this topic was bloated, so started new.
Death to EV bills | PriusChat

https://www.autoblog.com/news/toyotas-chairman-shared-this-controversial-opinion-about-ev-sports-cars

Bare-bones Slate EV pickup under US$20,000 with rebates - Reviews | Driving

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64564869/2027-slate-truck-revealed/

@Mendel Leisk Not even a touchscreen!

Source: https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-unveils-new-automated-vehicle-framework

I'm speculating that the challenge of fitting a battery of sufficient capacity inside a Prius will eventually be met with structural batteries:


Battery improvements have been incremental and small, therefore I think it will be a long time before we see batteries with a similar energy density equivalent to combustible fuels.

Source:

• pulse width modulated heating
• 1 MW peak charging rate
• refrigerant cooling

This brings EV charging into the 5 minute range. So long Tesla lead.

Bob Wilson

Wow!
Who saw this coming?



Full details here:
Warren Buffett Acquires Elon Musk's Tesla for $1 Trillion in Cash | GOBankingRates

Mike

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/dude-wheres-my-car-toyota-buyers-face-long-waits-amid-hybrid-boom-2025-03-31/

Source:


My first car was a 1966 VW MicroBus with a 1500 cc, air cooled engine and 6 V battery. Sad to say, the engine overheated when I was over seas and I got to rebuild it in a week. Nothing like taking a broken engine apart, fixing it, and putting it back together again to make you appreciate VW when they do the job right. That is what Munro found with the VW motor.

This VW motor is optimized for power in a small package with strong torque and low noise. It has a very efficient drive train and other than a few 'opps' (my MicroBus also had some,) clearly superior design where it counts. I don't know if they make them in Chattanooga but if not, I won't have to worry about getting one . . . unless some arrived before we taxed ourselves out of the VW market.

My recent 1,140 mi trip in a 2017 BMW i3-REx has demonstrated that absence of Full Self Driving is not a hard requirement. The cost mile of the 2017 BMW i3-REx compares equal to my 2019...

Source:


Professor Kelly and Munro do similar things, take cars apart. Munto to calculate the cost of parts and labor to make a car. Kelly does it to teach mechanics how to take it apart and it back in working order.

This 2024 traction battery is much improved over the one in my former, 2017 Prius Prime. Given what I've learned from Munro, it could be designed better but there have been much worse.

• BEST
  • Direct thermal management instead of air flow
  • Conformal underbody part
  • Direct refrigerant for cell cooling
• COULD BE BETTER
  • Colocate all possible power electronics with the battery
  • Even number of modules so all power terminals on one end
  • Cooling from a single spot leads to thermal gradients inside the cells

The Toyota lead engineer needs to hold a 'conference' with everyone designing, making, and fixing the battery with this goal:

• Reduce parts count

Bob Wilson

Source:


Both of my cars were bought after a Munro review like this and I'm thinking about replacing the 2017 BMW i3-REx. It is still doing what I want and there are more things to learn about the newest Model Y but I had found a 2022 Model Y for what had been a good price. I will take a look at it next week.

This morning, I got a note from the seller and I responded:


Bob Wilson

The new Corolla is arriving as early as in 2026, and it will have the revolutionary Toyota super-lean-burn engine, which will increase the thermal efficiency to near 50%. It could have an EPA fuel economy of as high as 70+ mpg. There will also be a PHEV version. We will see if TSS will be upgraded to 4.0 as well.

2027 Toyota Corolla could launch next year with a plug-in hybrid option | Carscoops

Articles:

• World debut of the all-new battery electric Toyota C-HR+
  
• https://www.motortrend.com/news/2026-toyota-c-hr-plus-ev-first-look-review/
• Toyota gets serious about EVs with new all-electric C-HR+ | Electrifying.com
• https://www.roadandtrack.com/photos/g64163068/new-electric-vehicles-toyota-and-lexus-revealed-europe/
• Toyota debuts two all-new EVs, facelifted BZ4X -...

Toyota's also a partner in iONNA,
EVgo and Toyota launch new fast charging stations in CA
IONNA | Juicin' Up North America One Rechargery at a Time

InsideEVs has an article I know many people will agree with.
https://insideevs.com/news/752720/ev-12-volt-battery-problems/

The 12V battery has shown to be a big issue with Hyundai Ionic 5, Kia EV6, Rivian R1S, and Rivian R1T. The article suggests it may be how engineers are not using the DC-to-DC converter correctly or even fault the DC-to-DC converter itself. I did a quick search on this forum and got 100 posts with 12V battery dead.

I can relate with past experience. All my past Prius suffered from dead 12V batteries within 2 or 3 years, my 2017 Prius Prime's 12V died within the 1st year from a shorted cell. The 12V in my Lexus NX 300h took 5 years before it died but while the article opines it may be the DC-DC converter, I have to disagree, somewhat. It's not the battery location either. The 12V batteries in my 2nd gen Prius and 1st gen Prius Plugin were in the rear, the Prius Prime's was located in...

Source:


It is PHEV like my 2017 BMW i3-REx only much bigger and well designed. I could see me buying one with a camper in the bed.

The specs:


Bob Wilson

• kWh/100 mi - this is the cost to operate the car. Suddenly, the Luicid gained an 8% advantage
• range miles - changed only 1 mile
• 2025 vs 2024 model years - what did they do?
  • Same gross weight ... Huh? Any mechanical or aerodynamic changes should change weight.
  • Lucid reduced battery from 88 kWh to 84 kWh!

What they did is "sandbag" the battery capacity which increased the apparent efficiency, kWh/100 mi. But it is the same battery in a car whose weight did not change. The clue, they didn't change the estimated miles. A more efficient car should increase the range.

If Lucid reported a change in the vehicle such as; more efficient electronics; motor; weight reduction; or drag reduction; no problem. But Car and Driver and Motor Trend do not report any design changes. It looks like Lucid...

"Stellantis has introduced STLA AutoDrive, an advanced autonomous driving technology offering hands-free, eyes-off driving up to 37 mph. The new SAE Level 3 system is designed for ease in dense urban traffic, enabling drivers to engage safely in activities like watching a movie, reading, or catching up on emails."
Stellantis Unveils New Hands-Free and Eyes-Off AI Driving Tech – DNyuz

GM backs out of deal with LG for an LG plant that was going to make Ultium cells for GM and Toyota has stepped in and made a deal with LG to keep the plant going and provide Toyota with cells instead.

Get ready for your Ultium powered Toyotas folks!