The 2020 Prius is amazing

Sorry, Singleminded, I'm just trying to follow your drift as best I can - which was ev's are going to happen in 10-15 years in terms of charge times and charging infrastructure. You further intimated it would have to be able to do 900 miles in a day, as an example. There's a certain inevitability about this, so we don't need to agree. It's going to happen anyway, and sooner than you think.

 

Same here!

I drive to Florida every winter (for vacation, I'm not a snow-bird... yet). It's 1378 miles each way. I make this trip, usually non-stop, in about 20-22 hours. I fill up before I get on the freeway, and generally only stop every 300 miles, give or take.

This trip would take days in an EV, currently. Once it is possible to drive an EV 300+ miles, at 80+ MPH, and recharge completely in <10 minutes, I will consider one.

I almost think it would be more realistic to have battery swap stations than to ever expect to safely charge an EV from 10-15% to 100% in such a short time. This is what they're doing with forklifts right now.

Otherwise, a better power supply altogether might be needed.

 

How do you know this?

And, yes, the ability to drive 900, 1000, 1500 miles without long term stopping is important to some.

 

I'm guessing that the billions dollars of private investment and engineering research isn't being done for a (yawn) pay back 15 years from now.

 

Sigh

 

Sigh. You seem to be having a debate with yourself, not with me. What you're doing is called a straw man argument. You're attacking something you said I said -- a straw man you constructed -- instead of what I actually said. So clearly this debate is going nowhere. So I'm done with it.

I sincerely wish you the best with the Cybertruck. It looks like an awesome vehicle. I fully expect I'll also be riding the EV wave and loving it too, some years from now.

 

This is a 4runner forum! Let's fight over how we are better than Jeeps. Let us also hope that EV technology expands (sooner the better) & helps all vehicles; including our T4R's...

 

Sure, but forklifts have been electric for years and they still haven't figured out how to make them charge faster. They change batteries multiple times during a shift.

I'm not saying it won't get there, but I doubt it'll happen within the next few years.

 

Our 4runners are so damn awesome that we have to fight about hypothetical future vehicles and technology!

 

I rode in an Infinity SUV this weekend. Pretty impressive.

 

Living in Hurricane alley, gives me pause for anything but an out of state and beyond range, without lengthy recharge times. This damn state all but shuts down when Miami is evacuated. Even ICEs have trouble refueling in those situations. They would have to have emergency charge stations with tow plants set up all along the highway for EVs, IF the charge times were negligible. Otherwise you'd have thousands in harms way doing the EV twiddle. Now multiply that by the coastal areas of TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, NY.....The future looks bright for some, but not all scenarios are completely thought out. A few years? Not in my neighborhood.

Side bar: On the other side of my dinosaur stance, I've eased up on my Eco boost stance, putting over 3k miles on a 4cyl Fusion rental this past few weeks. Freaking thing was fun! Capped it off last night doing a 60-140 mph hwy blast with a WRX, he backed off, I should have, but didn't.....and it was the most fun I've had in years lol.

 

Hybrids and Prime vehicles will bridge the gap until EV infrastructure is good enough to satisfy most consumers. I agree with earlier comments that it'll be about 10-15 years until we have that level of EV infrastructure and consumers have warmed up to the idea enough to buy an EV.

 

Brake regeneration would be good in evac traffic. I know very little about it though. What percentage of a recharge can it handle? Could it provide a decent range to get out of a Hurricanes path? A million vehicles looking to recharge in the same 12 hours is not feasible in the next decade. Not sure if our present infrastructure could handle it. Even mass transit couldn't handle that many people in one or two days.

 

When they first came out I was convinced they'd be a maintenance nightmare and once they hit at most 100,000 miles the batteries and drivetrain would be cooked. Boy was I way off. There are still a ton of old ones driving around just fine. An acquaintance traded his in two years ago w 236,000 miles just because he wanted something new. Nothing done to it other than fluid changes and brakes. I never should have doubted Toyota engineers.

 

My daughter had one, and had the same experience. There are very few moving parts in an EV compared to an ICE. It would be great to get that technology in a 4 Runner.

 

The nice thing is that the engines, though slow, are very understressed due to the electric motor assist. They don't have any starters to replace either (the electric motor is also the starter).

 

The endless debate of which of EV or ICE is superior . I think i love EV and ICE both but i live in Canada, up to north, in the last big city before the white frost, where we have 5-6 month of snow in a year. Forme the EV is worth absolutely nothing for now here, the range in the winter is awful, with snow and the cold (where we have -30 celcius) the range melt by another 30-40%. Heck, even the "best" Tesla with 500 km getting about 350 km when lucky. I think they are car for all driver in all situation. I think EV good to go to grocery. EV in south California are great. For my part, I have one big fear with EV going out of battery in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm. It's why I bought a 4R. Another plus, combustion engine heat ... and heat in the winter are great, I don't need the energy consuming heat pump that most EV car have. I think of a 4R hybrid Prime would be really good, imagine going 60-80 km full electric, with a range of 800 km in hybrid when needed, with the safety of the old ICE !

Edited : Sorry I usually work in km here, I will change them to km

 

Most cars are too low especially Prius, it's like sitting on the road 12 inches high, when you turn your head left to right, your face is level with other vehicles' wheels/tires

 

I didn't realize that Amazon has a major investment in Rivian...maybe Rivian will be a contender after all?

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/amazon-reveals-first-electric-van-rivian

 

I actually really like the looks of the Rivians. I hope they do well!

 

You should sit in a sports car. My Corolla sits like a CUV compared to those.

 

Well if we are gonna make fun of the cyber truck...