the latest ad from the largest auto company

8 responses to “the latest ad from the largest auto company”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Aug 28, 2014 at 6:03 pm

   it reminds me of the posters Castrol made in 2010, commentary

   Reply
2. 

   earsplitting spiders

   Aug 28, 2014 at 7:51 pm

   I think Toyota may regret this add in the future. As electric cars continue to evolve they will become more acceptable as a form of transportation. Besides, the proven way is costing me over $4 a gallon.

   Reply
3. 

   scleroplex

   Aug 28, 2014 at 9:50 pm

   :-))

   Reply
4. 

   jurvetson

   Aug 29, 2014 at 4:21 pm

   [https://www.flickr.com/photos/whereyallgoingnow] — no doubt they will. If they look far enough in the future, it is not even debatable that all vehicles will be electric.

   Meanwhile, here are a couple of fun rebuttals to this ad,
   from Mimi on Facebook and Thomas on Twitter

   Reply
5. 

   ferrarimanf355

   Aug 31, 2014 at 3:19 pm

   I’d rather have a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.

   Reply
6. 

   nhr

   Aug 31, 2014 at 11:35 pm

   The electricity used to charge an electric car doesn’t come out of thin air.

   Renewable sources (hydro, solar, wind etc.) provide a fairly small portion (about 14%) of the electricity generated in the US.

   Thus, from this card-carrying environmentalist’s point of view, Toyota’s hybrid approach doesn’t seem to make much less sense than a fully electric car. Well-engineered hybrid cars tend to be quite efficient in their use of different energy sources, by switching automatically between the on-board fossil fuel engine and electrical motor depending on driving conditions.

   The energy density of fossil fuel also makes it possible to make fuel readily and conveniently available at most locations, which is definitely not true for electrical power.
   One aspect people also tend to overlook is that if a large portion of the motor vehicles were to become electric, the electrical grid of most nations (including the US) isn’t sized to carry the electrical current intensities that would be required to charge them…

   Reply
7. 

   jurvetson

   Sep 2, 2014 at 2:03 am

   The EVs in the U.S. are concentrated in places likes California with majority clean sources and growing. Distributed solar is the easy answer to the grid load fears.

   Even if you want to burn oil, fracked gas, or a biofuel, for some reason, it’s better to do it in a centralized plant because of the heat loss in small engines. A modern Siemens cogen plant is 70% efficient. Our fuel-burning cars are 20 – 25%. EVs like Tesla are 88% efficient, so even after transmission line and storage losses, it’s better to burn fuel centrally.

   These sub scale oil burners are an anachronism, and the hybrid car is a transition species, much like the amphibian. And if you want innovation in the hybrid space, take a look at the Honda FIT. They redesigned the internal combustion engine in a way that can only work in a hybrid car. There is no fan belt and associated losses. And they double the MPG of the Lexus!

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8. 

   nhr

   Sep 2, 2014 at 9:19 pm

   Cogeneration efficiency figures can be high if the heat energy produced by a power plant can actually be put to good use — e.g. as a district heating system in cold climes, a chemical plant nearby the power plant etc.

   Distributed solar power generation can be effective in areas blessed with favorable sunlight conditions.

   There thus might indeed be some specific geographical markets where conditions are favorable for cogeneration, or where the economics of distributed, sub-scale solar power generation and electrical energy storage — for example by individual households — make sense, and in which the ecological balance sheet tilts towards EVs.

   Reply