Toyota drops plan for widespread sales of electric car

Toyota Motor Corp has scrapped plans for widespread sales of a new all-electric minicar, saying it had misread the market and the ability of still-emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands.

Toyota, which had already taken a more conservative view of the market for battery-powered cars than rivals General Motors Co and Nissan Motor Co, said it would only sell about 100 battery-powered eQ vehicles in the United States and Japan in an extremely limited release.

Read the full story on Reuters.

Interesting contrast to Tesla Motors who just rolled out their Supercharger network of charging stations and is offering free charging to Model S customers. By the time BMW gets their EV i3 and i8 to market it will either be owned by Tesla or be dead in the water. Who do you think has the right strategy, Toyota or Tesla?

Tim

Who killed the electric car this time

Toyota realised their tiny city car wasn't going be competitive so they wisely cancelled it.

There is a huge gap between the Leaf and the Model S. If BMW prices the i3 right, they could fit into an empty niche.


Don't overlook Nissan-Renault and their huge investment in plants set to come on-line in 2013.