If it was from the article, then I apologize to the poster. - Mark
Sent from my Fuel Cell powered iPhone > On Dec 9, 2019, at 12:49 PM, EVDL Administrator via EV <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> On 8 Dec 2019 at 23:12, Mark Abramowitz via EV wrote: >> >> Your statement about Toyota not making money on the Mirai is pretty silly. > > It wasn't the poster's statement, it was from an article he quoted. And I > don't understand why you would call it "silly." > >> >> Who knows if they will make money on it, but they didnTMt make money on the >> Prius for a number of years. > > The Marai and Prius aren't at all comparable. The Prius is a true mass > production vehicle. The Mirai is effectively a proof of concept vehicle. A > better analogy for it would be the GM EV1. > > I can't say I "know" that the Mirai will never be profitable, but it'd be a > pretty safe bet. It may be a marvel of technology and a joy to drive for > its few ownerst, but i's a highly specialized, narrow-appeal vehicle. It's > safe to say that Toyota will never amortize its development cost, let alone > sell it above production cost. > > It's far from unknown for automakers to accept initial losses on new vehicle > (ICEVs) when they're introduced, in order to establish them in the market. > Honda did that with the original Accord, and Toyota with Prius. But those > cars had a reasonable expectation of success. I can't imagine that Toyota > actually expects to ever make money on the Mirai. > >> Hopefully the success of the [Mirai] will be longer than the 10 or so >> years it took to make money on the Prius > > The Prius turned a profit in 2001, 4 years after introduction. > > If Toyota really wants the Mirai to be successful, they should probably plan > on bulding as many hydrogen filling stations as Tesla has superchargers, and > as rapidly. (Not that I actually think it's good for drivers when an > automaker, either Toyota or Tesla, builds its own filling stations.) > > That would require a substantial financial commitment. While a supercharger > costs $250k to build, I've seen estimates anywhere from $1 million to $5 > million for hydrogen filling stations. Maybe the cost isn't well > established because so few have been built. > > Tesla has over 1600 superchargers. That many H2 stations would cost between > $1.6 billion and $8 billion. I could be wrong, but my guess is that Toyota > isn't going to spend that money, but rather wants governments to build the > stations for them, using our taxes. > > David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA > EVDL Administrator > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not > reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my > email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html > INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
