alt Hacker News> I would prefer if Toyota just released a new EV model with roughly the same proportions as the Corolla
Indeed. Toyota's days are numbered.
BYD is selling EVs for US$14K in Australia. Toyota is Nokia, they don't know it just yet. Corolla EV is 30K USD, gas 25K.
AUD 19,900 driveway (means taxes, registration etc included), or about US$14K: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49772728
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Quality matters though. A 10 years warranty as long as you do the prescribed maintenance with hassle free ownership is a major reason why Toyota’s clientele sticks.
It’s not impossible to unseat them. But it’s also far from given.
Toyota still sells 10M cars a year and has an enormous manufacturing, supplier and dealer network. That doesn’t disappear overnight because BYD can sell a $14k EV in one market
> BYD is selling EVs for US$14K in Australia
Tech people seem to really be confused about the concepts of revenue and net income; must be the whole VC we lose money on every item, but make it up on volume thing.
Toyota sells more cars per year than the US manufactures combined.
(Though there is some overlap as Toyota also builds in the US)
Toyota is riding on reputation of quality. If they can keep quality high and maintain the reputation, they will be okay.
> Indeed. Toyota's days are numbered.
> BYD is selling EVs for US$14K in Australia.
It's not even about BYD. All of Europe is now buying EVs like crazy. How many of these are Toyota? One 40k€ model basically.
> Indeed. Toyota's days are numbered.
Uhhhh excuse me? I just bought a new Toyota Camry Hybrid because its range is 650 miles on a single gas tank. I can drive from Bay Area to LA, drive around LA for 5 days and then drive back home on 1.5 tanks of gas. I love it, and I don't have to spend hours charging. My other car is a Tesla, which I also love but I will never use it for road trips. My friend drove from Chicago to SF and had to charge 15+ times.
The weakness of the Yen does a lot for Toyota. You can pick a new Corolla for US$14K if you are buying in Japan.
You’re off your head if you think Toyota's days are numbered.
They make the best utes and 4x4 in the world.
BYD trucks haven't won a war yet, so at least in that segment Toyota is safe for now.
This has been said so many times, yet Toyota's sales keep growing and incumbent EV makers plateaud.
Except Chinese ones, of course.
Everyone thought Toyota was Nokia when Tesla appeared... I think those days are over. Toyota survived that one already with a facelift for Prius.
BYD Dolphin base in Japan is $19k, the new Racco kei car is $14k. They're not doing so well - they just have no selling point. They're not even the cheapest of EVs in Japan, let alone the cheapest of all cars for Japan - $19k is literally 4k over the current gen JDM Corolla. I think that is an indication that BYD has no secret sauce but their pricing are just introductory one to starve off last bits of Western industrial capacities spared by Japanese automakers.