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If you talk to anyone who has been a die-hard Apple user since the inception of the iPhone, you will come to learn something about them. Apple is the end-all of smartphone technology. Android users disagree entirely with that, claiming that Android-based phones are far superior, giving them more customization and features.
While that debate will rage on eternally, another fight is happening in a different technological realm, automotive. It is the battle over the electric car and the technology surrounding it, particularly battery technology.
If you have ever met a Tesla fan, you will know they are like Apple users, and many of them probably are. They admire the hard work and thought put into the Tesla vehicles by co-founder Elon Musk. They look at him as some form of tech leader that has graced their every waking moment with the hope of a better future.
The thing with Tesla owners is they are very rooted in everything about the company. They are the early adopters and will be Tesla owners for the rest of their lives, just like Apple users.
So what happens when something else comes out to challenge the status quo? What happens when another car company comes out with something that is ultimately better? We are entering a time in history where we see this happen right before our eyes. Most just do not understand it, though.
Toyota And Tesla the Apple/Android Of The Car World
Toyota motor has been around for decades longer than Tesla. Hailed often as a premium car company, Toyota is a brand that people know and trust. In my opinion, they are more like Apple, while Tesla is more like Android.
Update: After today's decision by the Japanese government Toyota has no choice but to follow Tesla or chart its own EV path.
Some of you may say this is total heresy, but hear me out. Toyota started the real EV revolution back before GM killed the EV-1. Hybrids are synonymous with Prius, just as electric cars are with Tesla. Apple gave us the first real smartphone. No, your lame Blackberry does not count. Toyota gave us the first real hybrid, which is part EV.
When Tesla entered the scene, electric cars were a neat idea, but most people thought it would fail, based on what GM had done. To me, it was like Android first starting out. Competing in a new and mostly uncharted space with competition from more prominent car companies that overlooked it.
Android, now like Tesla, has become a significant player in the market with many different Android OS brands. Apple, on the other hand, is still playing the iPhone game and sticking to it. Like Toyota, with the hybridization of their fleet, they rely on hybrids to rule the empire. All the time, watching what Tesla is doing and waiting for the opportune moment to strike, and strike hard.
Toyota And The Solid State Battery Revolution
Tesla battery day, in my eyes, was a huge success. Gaining a 56% increase in overall vehicle efficiency is absolutely astounding. Better batteries that cost less to produce and are less harmful to the environment are significant steps in complete EV adoption in the next 10 years.
As neat as battery day was for Tesla and all the fanboys (and girls), it is nothing compared to Toyota's announcement. The solid-state battery that Toyota promises to bring out next year will wipe the floor with Tesla battery tech.
Think about it. A battery that can fully charge in 10 minutes go farther is safer and better for the environment is a total no-brainer. It will destroy everything about lithium tech, no question. If there was ever a time in history where an EV revolution would take over on a massive scale, the time is now.
Tesla currently cannot produce more than 3% of what Toyota does, which also means once Toyota is at its production level, Tesla better hope they have a prayer and a fan base that will stay with them.
Why Toyota Will Succeed
I have been around many different Tesla models. I have been around many different Toyota models. Here is what I can tell you from not only my experience but that of others.
Toyota builds a better vehicle. Is Toyota a perfect car company? No, that does not exist. There are many things about Toyota that I wish were different. However, when it comes to longevity, Toyota builds a vehicle that lasts. The attention to detail with Tesla over the paint, weatherstripping, and car construction is somewhat lacking, a lot.
It is not to say that Tesla cannot build a vehicle; they simply need more time to refine their process and dial the cars in. Toyota will succeed because they have been in the game for longer than Tesla. Toyota knows the market better and has more established manufacturing facilities.
Toyota has loyal engineers and decades of research and development. Tesla does not have the resources that Toyota does and may not for quite a few more years.
Toyota will succeed because they are incredibly strategic. No move is ever made in the Toyota realm without serious time spent researching and doing a cost-benefit analysis. They are the Sensei to the Tesla apprentice.
Conclusion
When it comes to building a vehicle, I will buy a Toyota over a Tesla for the quality factor. If I plan on spending $40,000 or more on a new car, I want it to last. I think Tesla is going in the right direction but is not there yet. No one even knows why their company value is so high when they cannot even turn profits regularly.
Toyota is a company that does not do anything until they know for sure it will work. Toyota went longer than every other manufacturer before putting Lithium-Ion batteries in their hybrids. Why? Toyota believed it was not developed enough yet.
Thinking on that idea, Toyota is now rolling out a solid-state battery. This bit of knowledge tells me that Toyota has been researching this for years and kept it under wraps. They are ready to present the world with the next big thing in transportation.
Tesla may be the first car to be synonymous with EV, but Toyota is the wise Sensei who keeps showing the apprentice new things.
Until next time! Have a pleasant holiday and stay safe out there. Check out what is happening to Honda Element Owners
Check out this wild new battery tech that Tesla has and why it will forever change the auto industry.
Peter Neilson is an automotive consultant specializing in electric cars and hybrid battery technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Automotive Service Technology from Weber State University. Peter can be reached on Linkedin and you can tweet him at The_hybrid_guy on Twitter. Find his page on Facebook at Certified Auto Consulting. Read more of Peter's stories at Toyota news coverage on Torque News. Search Toyota Prius Torque News for more in depth Prius coverage from our reporters.
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Comments
Anyone else remember FUD?
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Anyone else remember FUD? Fear Uncertainty Doubt. That's what this article reminds me of. It's like an attempt to squash Tesla which is rising fast, by spreading FUD about a product that doesn't even exist yet. Let's wait a year and see what is really on the market a year from now. I would love to see Toyota succeed. I just think it's dumb to try to make this out to be a Tesla killer product. Elon Musk and company won't be sitting still during the next year.
David,
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In reply to Anyone else remember FUD? by David (not verified)
David,
Great points. I hope to see EV adoption be widespread and across all the traditional automakers, but I just don’t see any evidence to even back up the possibility that Toyota will “beat Tesla”. Solid state batteries are still a ways away in my opinion. When I worked on then a few years ago, they performed very very poorly in the cold and were nowhere near the scale of an EV battery. If this really was a near future possibility for EV batteries, I bet other automakers and Tesla would have already been investing... it’s just not one year away...
Speaking of wiping the floor,
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Speaking of wiping the floor, that is what should be done with whatever you think qualifies you as a journalist. Knowing that yellow journalism is all the rage to disguise incompetence, so keeping your rancid imagination out of "reporting" will benefit us all.
What a goofball analysis.
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What a goofball analysis. Trying to wedge comparisons of Tesla being Android, Toyota being Apple. How? “Because I have been around both cars”. Yeah, me, too. I own a Prius and M3. Bottom line: Tesla is Apple, Toyota Android.
Everyone in the comments is
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Everyone in the comments is overlooking the writer's main point. Tesla has a limit to what they can currently produce and the quality with which they will produce it. Right now there are tens of thousands of Tesla owners that cannot even service their vehicles due to a lack of infrastructure. Oh, by the way, Tesla is usually 60 days from financial insolvency so I would not bet on a growing infrastructure big enough to suit demand. Toyota has the highest quality vehicles on the road and you can buy one without a waiting list....meaning when I need it. It's all a false comparison. Apples to oranges. Toyota is on top. Tesla is fiddling around the base and slicing off a niche market.
People who have no actual
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In reply to Everyone in the comments is by Sheldon (not verified)
People who have no actual experience in the auto industry have no idea how influential and powerful Toyota is. Your logic flies well passed most of these readers, but good points none the less!
People with no understanding
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In reply to People who have no actual by Jessie (not verified)
People with no understanding of electric propulsion or battery technology would make that type of type of comment. Most of the author’s arguments are poor at best.
1) Solid state batteries are still far from ready. Toyota is blowing hot air. If SSBs were close to implementation in EVs, other competitors would be jumping at the opportunity also. Read this comment 2 years from now when Toyota still hasn’t sold an EV with a solid state battery
2) This is a “tech” competition and not an “automaker” competition. Tesla is a tech company for a reason.
3) Toyota has no experience with EVs.. well, they made a RAV4 EV... on a Tesla powertrain.
4) Making “good cars” does not constitute making a quality EV.
60 days from bankruptcy?
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In reply to Everyone in the comments is by Sheldon (not verified)
60 days from bankruptcy?
With net cash of $4.5 billion obtained from financing activities, Tesla's cash on hand of $14.5 billion reported in 2020 3Q seems to add up now. As mentioned, Tesla generated about $1.5 billion in free cash flow in Q3 2020.
Stupidist comment on here. And that includes the hydrogen rules comments.
It would not be surprising if
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In reply to Everyone in the comments is by Sheldon (not verified)
It would not be surprising if you think Trump won the election too, you are so far removed from reality. This is utter fantasy.
Toyota has to want to make
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Toyota has to want to make EVs in order for them to succeed with EVs and if you listen to their boss they don't want to. I'll believe they are serious when they start to spend some real money. Those solid state batteries have to come from.somewhere, where are they building that plant. VW is spending 70 billion Euros to build EVs. GM $27B including a battery plant. On battery day Musk described how they were increasing the productivity of their battery plants by 10X so they could reach their goal of 3 TWh of batteries per year. Toyota has said nothing about building their batteries in volume. If you look at what they are doing now it doesn't inspire confidence. They Rav4 Prime is a pretty decent PHEV that could sell in large numbers if Toyota was interested but they are limiting sales to 20,000 next year, compliance numbers.
would this technology end up
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would this technology end up in their phones first? this is called vaporware
I would agree that Toyota
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I would agree that Toyota definitely has Tesla beat in quality as of this moment for the reason that you name: They simply have been at the game longer and have fine-tuned their process. Tesla is slowly but surely fixing their problems with quality and I have no doubt that they will succeed.
From what I understand, Toyota is not actually releasing the battery next year. They are debuting it next year. I believe the car itself is scheduled to be released a few years after that. But that being said, Toyota has fooled us many times with promises of electric vehicles. They invested way too much time and energy on hydrogen fuel cell cars and are now trying to play catch up, along with a few others such as Honda. I wish them the best of luck, truly, but I will believe it when I see it.
The Handspring Treos were the
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The Handspring Treos were the first real smartphones.
All this talk about Apple and
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All this talk about Apple and smart phones...
Nobody seems to remember windows mobile that was out for years before the iPhone. I loved that thing.
Sorry, but it's hard to
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Sorry, but it's hard to believe Toyota has some magical solid state battery technology under wraps that the rest of the world, and in particular Elon doesn't already know about. This sounds more like an attention grabbing attempt, given the dismal acceptance of Toyota's hydrogen fueled vehicle whose acceleration and handling are pathetic. As for Toyota's manufacturing advantage, there's a lot of their engine, transmission, cooling system and drive train capacity that suddenly will be worth zero. Nice try but your claim is like saying the dominant reliable 1920s cable and pulley "steamshovel" manufacturers were destined to run over the new hydraulic piston "steamshovel" startup Caterpillar introduced. As for Tesla's reliability issues, the drive train and battery are rock solid. Their issues are cosmetics - panel fit, paint, squeaks, etc.) which are all easily solveable.
But it wasn't hard to believe
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In reply to Sorry, but it's hard to by Jimbo (not verified)
But it wasn't hard to believe that Apple or Tesla had come up with something Sony or any other car manufacturer hadn't? Seriously, you Apple/Tesla zealots are something else.
How is it hard to believe
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In reply to Sorry, but it's hard to by Jimbo (not verified)
How is it hard to believe that Toyota has technology that's better than Tesla or has technology that Musk doesn't know about? They own over 1000 patents related to solid state battery technology and they are the largest patent hold in the world by FAR when it comes to Hybrid and EV technology. They have put more R&D into these technologies than any other company. People act like Toyota is lagging behind or sleeping when in fact they are the most successful vehicle manufacturer in the world and continue to prove that year over year. Tesla has literally 3% of the manufacturing capacity as Toyota. Another thing this article mentioned that travels well past the comprehension of most people reading this article is that Toyota has loyal engineers and honestly, the best in the world. This is the crux that gives them the advantage over Tesla let alone infrastructure and common sense. Tesla is temporary. Even Musk admitted that just a few years ago he was trying to sell the company. Musk has taken massive profit from stock sales for personal gain. Toyota is and always has been a private company that spends their money wisely and doesn't concede to the demands or needs of 'investors'. They have such an astronomical leg up in this race it's hard to believe that there are so many people confused on this situation.
If as you say Toyota has all
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In reply to How is it hard to believe by Jessie (not verified)
If as you say Toyota has all these patents then others are well aware of them and would be working on variations not covered by these patents. That doesn't seem to be happened. For the record, I'm not a fanboy. Just a physicist who has been involved with battery technology since the mid 1990s.
I have owned 6 Toyotas before
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In reply to Sorry, but it's hard to by Jimbo (not verified)
I have owned 6 Toyotas before switching to Tesla. Sorry to say but the Toyota quality is not even close to Tesla. Toyota is on the verge of bankruptcy and have no solid state battery or its like in the making. They put all their BT’s on hydrogen and lost.
Interesting article, although
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Interesting article, although I think that the conclusions aren't justified by the data. First of all, the argument that apple is the go to indominus smartphone game is a very american-centric idea. Worldwide, Android holds 87% of the market. That's more of an aside, as I'm an Android user, but I get really sick of the Apple Fanboys making that assumption.
A lot of users of commented that we need to go to hydrogen, and his energy efficiency goes, I think generating electricity with a solar rooftop and charging my car is the way to go. Totally off grid, using the biggest hydrogen burner in our neighborhood, it's called the sun. And it's totally renewable.
I think Tesla is Apple, much as I don't like apple lol, because Elon musk equals Steve Jobs. Both of advanced technology through vision and will and the refusal to take no for an answer. As someone mentioned elsewhere, Toyota has held back from entering the electric market, and in fact has deplored companies like Tesla for doing so. The fact that they're making such statements against cultural norms tells me that they're nervous as hell. Tesla has a proven battery and their strategy has always been first and foremost battery research. Also your analysis fails to mention another huge strategic advantage to Tesla has right now, and that is their supercharging Network which is integrated into their car navigation. No other car on the market currently has this advantage and ease of use if you're traveling beyond your local charging area. To me that alone is a reason to buy Tesla at this time.
What will the playing field look like in 3 years? God only knows, it's like asking what the price of a specific stock will be in 2025. I am getting into the Tesla game personally, but I am not investing in a purchase. I'm at a point in my life where I'm self-employed and can deduct lease payments, so a three-year lease is the way to go for me. that way if something better comes along, I can easily extricate myself from my tesla, which is possibly becoming obsolete, even though the software in the car is continuously updated.
Toyota is also the company
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Toyota is also the company that markets hybrids as "self charging EVs" and hydrogen fuel cell cars as "negative emissions" so if you take their claims at face value, this article is going to be a laughing stock in 2 years. 56% vehicle efficiency gain? Most of the inefficiencies are aerodynamic losses at highway speeds. The physics are not there for your claims. 10 minute charging also means a ridiculous amount of heat generated in your charging system in 10 minutes. Toyota doesn't even have a charging infrastructure. Unless they want to make another crippled California only car like the Mirai, these theoretical numbers mean nothing.
Legacy car companies are
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Legacy car companies are finding out much more difficult to successfully produce high-ish volume electric cars that sell. Yes Toyota makes well engineered cars but I don't think they've sold and ECs yet. Maybe they should make some Li battery powered cars first to get some on the road and learn about what it takes to do that instead of promising untested, never produced next-gen technology that we all know won't be released for 5 years, of ever. Just like their stupid hydrogen cars, this is mostly greenwashing to look like they are doing something or for European fleet rules.
you dis Tesla while
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you dis Tesla while championing a company that you say has some hidden tech next year... who is blowing smoke and who is building factories????? Tesla and GM are the ones to watch, vw and toyota are talking themselves into the graveyard. Maybe they can join with the Packard museum one day.......
Do people REALLY think that
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Do people REALLY think that Tesla is just getting 100% blindsided by SSB developments? Really? Do we think Musk is like "But muh tabless electrodes! Perfect in every way!" They'll partner with whoever they need to partner with, if they're really behind. And all i heard about a Toyota ev was "prototype next year" ok? That's not how you spell imminent doom for Tesla.
Sorry but your article
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Sorry but your article excessively misses the mark and blatantly discusses your own biases. To compare Tesla to Apple is insane, apple releases the same phone year after year with slight updates, android is a much better system but its easily hackable and to extreme for a car. Ive literarly purchase a tesla 2 weeks ago, model y and came from a prius i drove since 2014. Toyotas main selling point is its simplicity, teslas is its complexity and innovation.
It's insane to think Tesla is
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It's insane to think Tesla is Android.
Tesla is Apple. Anti-social proprietary connector. One button. Paid for options remotely deleted from your car.
This is sarcastic humor,
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This is sarcastic humor, right? Many times, Toyota ditched EVs in favor of hybrids and even the silly notion of hydrogen (which is cool but not nearly as efficient).
Toyota had entered the market too late, just like the rest of the legacy auto industry.
By the time they come out with a better battery (which is all hype, btw, because the solid state battery is only marginally better than old Tesla, I mean Panasonic, cells), Tesla will be selling terawatt hours of cheaply produced cells that are good enough to power the world with (and being solar charged).
The enemy of good enough is perfection.
Am I wrong that you have
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Am I wrong that you have worked for Toyota in many different capacities? Wouldn't a good journalist make sure that their readers know that when posting such a pro-Toyota article?
The article is founded on
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The article is founded on speculation and promise. It is heavy with opinion and bias. Today, Tesla has delivered on it's promises while Toyota is simply projecting plans. A decent article though misses to lean on facts.
Wow.... This dude seems to
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Wow.... This dude seems to not know anything about the ev market.. Very idiotic and manipulative statements in this article. Last time i read from this site.