Kia and Hyundai to build EVs in Mexico

Tackling global change and climate change will need a multi-pronged approach. Some companies are working on electric cars with solar panels. Here is the one company that Your Humble Fellow Zihua Lover believes may just get it right:

https://aptera.us/

Yes, that car is interesting. I have a deposit in place for years to buy one.

I also had a deposit on this car…

https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/b-c-based-electrameccanica-will-build-solo-cars-in-arizona

… this car…

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/electra-meccanica-reveals-tofino-chassis-and-solo-at-2018-vancouver-international-auto-show-678215053.html

… and a CyberTruck.

So far, the only BEV on my list that was actually delivered is a Tesla Model 3 that I didn’t have to pre-order.

As mentioned, battery electric vehicles do have a much lower carbon footprint. However, many in the industry, including the previous CEO of Toyota, have pointed out that the lithium and some of the other elements needed are simply not in sufficient supply to build all the cars that the world needs. "Toyota can produce eight 40-mile plug-in hybrids for every one 320-mile battery electric vehicle and save up to eight times the carbon emitted into the atmosphere," according to prepared remarks for Toyoda provided to media.

I think the operational words there are “previous CEO”.

In Mexican politics there were PRI members who were referred to as dinosaurs. They refused to embrace change. Some of them maintained their intransigence through to the end of the PRI dynasty. Toyota might be suffering in the same way.

From Toyoda’s own words,

Toyoda, the 66-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, described his own limitations while speaking to reporters on Thursday.

“Because of my strong passion for cars, I am an old-fashioned person in regards to digitalization, electric vehicles, and connected cars. I cannot go beyond being a car guy, and that is my limitation,” he said, according to the FT. “The new team can do what I can’t do…I now need to take a step back in order to let young people enter the new chapter of what the future of mobility should be like.”

https://fortune.com/2023/01/26/toyota-ceo-to-step-aside-welcomes-new-generation-of-leadership/

I liked my Toyotas. I wish Toyoda and Toyota had moved more quickly and decisively to embrace ZEVs.