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sobayimage

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 13, 2012
Messages
62
Location
Palos Verdes Estates, CA
Toyota Motor Sales appears reluctant to advertise the Rav4 EV and in fact there is a complete absence of any mention of it’s existence in their commercial advertising. I spoke to a person in the market for a new luxury car the other day and she expressed a desire for an electric car. She knew of the Nissan Leaf, the Chevy Volt and even the Toyota plug-in Prius. She wasn’t in the market for a small car. When I mentioned there was an electric version of the Toyota Rav4, she said she had never hear of it. I showed her my Rav4 EV parked in front of her office and she was blown away with it. I told her it was a compliance car but this didn’t phase her. She really wanted one.
This car would sell itself if Toyota just let people know it existed. The executives at Toyota really like the car, in-fact the wife of one executive told me today, she has two of them at home.
 
I never understand when a company creates a fantastic product but then fails to tell anyone about it. Absolutely perplexing. This is the same thing Infiniti did when it launched the M56...not a single advertisement for it (or any other Infiniti product except the G35) for years, and as a result the sales sucked. Yet it was one of the absolute best cars in its class for its price on the market.
 
Sometimes the opposite is just as perflexing . . . remember Pepsi Edge and Coke C2? These 50% less sugar drinks from both well known beverage companies must of had hundreds of millions spent on prime time advertising only to be dropped after little more than a year on the market. WTF?!?!?!?!?

I personally was hooked on Pepsi Edge but after what seemed like only a few months, I could not find it on shelves anywhere. It simply disappeared just when consumers started hearing about it and wanted to give it a try. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!
 
Perhaps we, the choir, are a little guilty ourselves. The Pulg-in Amercia site lists the RAV4 EV as TBA.
http://www.pluginamerica.org/vehicles?page=5
 
In terms of Toyota "getting the word out", we are talking Acquisition Cost or "payback".

With the intention of only selling, what was it, 2600, were Toyota to conduct an advertising campaign for the Rav4 EV it would be very hard to justify.
Add to that the oft-mentioned cost of production (e.g. $38K to Tesla for the drivetrain), it's not clear Toyota is all that eager to sell these.
Sure, as also oft-mentioned, is the goal of selling "just enough" to avoid certain penalties - but it is very hard to see how selling just 2600 over 3 years makes much of a dent in meeting those goals.

For me, I do not need the approval of others to feel really excellent about my buying a Rav4 EV decision. It works for me... perhaps not others.
Indeed, were I blessed with a shorter commute, I would have been hard pressed not to select one of a number of shorter range EV alternatives. That upcoming BMW i3 looks particularly attractive... but there are many others.

I have a suspicion that the Rav4 EV (V2) will not be Toyota's last EV. Much like BMW that themselves had two EVs (e-Mini and e-1series) in very limited volumes, I get that there is still benefit in getting a car in limited production for help in understanding what a high production model would require. I'm just happy we could actually buy our Rav4 EVs this time (V1 was not, originally, purchasable... much like the EV-1, the Honda Fit EV, and the aforementioned 2 BMW EVs).
 
edmc said:
Sure, as also oft-mentioned, is the goal of selling "just enough" to avoid certain penalties - but it is very hard to see how selling just 2600 over 3 years makes much of a dent in meeting those goals.

Read this tutorial:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/factsheets/zev_tutorial.pdf

It will answer lots of questions. In a nutshell, if Toyota makes 0.79% of it production with ZEV's, that is one part of the overall compliance with CARB rules.

330,000 cars multiplied by 0.79% equals 2607 cars.
 
edmc said:
but it is very hard to see how selling just 2600 over 3 years makes much of a dent in meeting those goals.

TonyWilliams said:
In a nutshell, if Toyota makes 0.79% of it production with ZEV's, that is one part of the overall compliance with CARB rules.

330,000 cars multiplied by 0.79% equals 2607 cars.

That 2600 number is for 3 years

Tony's 330K number was possibly computed relative to the 2600 figure, no?

A quick check of Toyota's US sales numbers reveals something on the order of 1.7M.
I have no idea of what the yearly sales within CA would be... anybody know?

By my read of the link Tony supplied, Toyota averaging selling 11OK cars in CA per year, for 3 years, would make it matter :)

So perhaps Toyota need not fret for a couple of years... and may be counting on rising gas prices to ultimately steer enough buyers to meet the spec.
 
Yes, 3 years.

Toyota originally needed to sell 2600 cars (based on how many oil burners they plan to sell in California) for 2600 / 36 = 72 per month.

Now, it's 2300 / 30 = 76 per month, and they are not even close with $10k and 0% financing and 2% dealer holdback.

Yes, they are "fretting", but apparently spending advertising dollars doesn't pencil out for now 2300 cars. Selling 2012 cars in 2015 might be more difficult, and with more EV competition.... they need to sell as many NOW as they can.
 
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