Initial sales of Toyota RAV4 EV limited to California

[evnow]

After the news of delay from Ford, comes the shocker from Toyota.

I've been saying for sometime now that all this EV talk from Toyota is purely for CARB.

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/08/10/initial-sales-of-toyota-rav4-ev-limited-to-california/

Carter told Ward's Auto the electric crossover will initially be sold exclusively in the Golden State. Carter didn't reveal much else, but he did mention that electric vehicles are low-volume and, as Ward's Auto says, "of only regional interest at this point."

http://wardsauto.com/ar/toyota_evs_prius_110810/

“We will be there (with EVs),” Carter says. “There’s a market need for it. We will fill the need. But the technology needs to go a few more steps before we see the market opening up.”

Why does Toyota (and Honda) need to make EVs ?

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/zevregs/zevregs.htm

Starting in 2012, all manufacturers need to have actual zero emission vehicles to meet the ZEV requirements. Until then, they can be met with hybrids (PZEV, ATPZEV etc).

From 2012 to 2014 there is a 0.79% ZEV floor and from 14 to 17 that goes up to 3%. So, Toyota would have to sell some 4,000 EVs a year if their total sale is 500K in CA.

 

[SanDust]

You were right, though it has always been hard to believe that Toyota was really going to turn out big numbers of EVs powered by thousands of laptop batteries. Too radical for them.

Good news for Nissan. What did Ghosn say? Something like "every day our competitors don't release an electric car is a good day for us?"