Preference.  The endless praise for 800-volt systems (verses the more common 400-volt) is always without detail, no real-world experience sharing.  It's just a mindless quotes claiming you'll save priceless time charging.  Ugh.  Actual travel usually involves more than just a rush to get back on the road.  Anywho, I keep addressing it:  The rub is there's always a tradeoff.  The market is now establishing a basic expectation... 30 minutes.  So regardless of actual battery size, there's some type of standard to advertise.  Industry messaging has been an horrible mess.  That's exactly what is needed.  It will open doors to the next stage... premium packages.  Toyota has already clearly stated in their plans that battery options will become available.  A new chemistry offering far faster charging will be a choice for those with a preference for speed and willing to pay a premium for it.  (The same will be the case for range as well.)  In short, that difference between 24 minutes and 30 minutes misses the bigger picture.  Market growth requires diversity.  If you pay attention, the target for "ultra fast" charging seems to be settling in at 10 minutes.  The difference between 30 minutes and just 10 is significant, an upgrade that's simple to understand and advertise.

Rivian could indeed show great success with R2 offerings, but that same fate is possible.   Meanwhile, Toyota is reaching out to a different audience.  At this stage, there is not an audience overlap.  The same trap still exists.

At This Stage.  I was encouraged by constructive discussion yesterday.  That fell apart today.  It was just effortless anti-EV rhetoric.  Blah.  I still tried sending something useful back anyway:  At this stage, why do you believe the competition is other automakers?  With bZ, C-HR, Woodland bZ, followed by Highlander bZ, we're looking at a paradigm shift.  In other words, the narrative of Toyota being anti-EV falls apart.  Loyal Toyota customers will be shopping the showroom floor, making choices among that inventory... not cross shopping other brands.  That's why I asked about speed.  Do you really think a vehicle with potentially 5 passengers is going to care about the difference between 24 and 30 minutes?  With distance too, an extra 30-40 miles won't make any difference... especially as people see more DC fast-chargers.

Value.  I like the critical thinking that's finally happening: "When the PHEV model is $36-$41k, and you can get EV6 in that price bracket, then the value goes out the window.  The PHEV price would need to be at $30k or less to be of value."  I don't necessary agree, but I welcome the exchange:  The value is based on range-anxiety, a reassurance... like insurance.  You pay for protection you will rarely ever actually need.  The convenience part is undeniable though. Being able to jump into the PHEV under any circumstances at a moments notice is well worth paying a premium for with some consumers.   Also, you are assessment has a gross oversight.  Living with a BEV without a level-2 charger has tradeoffs.  That is not true with PHEV having only level-1 for charging.  That expense of adding a dedicated line and EVSE adds roughly $2000 to the overall vehicle cost, though that benefit can be extended beyond the lifetime of that single BEV.  Look at it this way, people are willing to pay for the larger battery-pack in a BEV.  Why?  With new DC fast-chargers popping up everywhere, what's the point of that extra range you will rarely actually need?  In other words, purchase decisions are not always logical.

Admit Defeat.  Parallels to politics never ceases to amaze me.  I find it remarkable to see the president act exactly like a troll online.  He's a horrible person with horrible intent.  The transactional nature of decisions and the fact that each is zero-sum has always been a recipe for disaster.  Now, we are watching that disaster unfold on a horrifying scale.  This is how I commented about that on a friend's post pointing out behavior of his followers:  It's fascinating to watch supporters dig deeper and deeper, never willing to give up even when at a point of nothing to gain and more to lose.  I watched that several times over the past 25 years with green vehicle solutions.  What starts as a somewhat sketchy approach turns into a series of worsening bets.  The most obvious is what happened with Tesla.  Model S/X was too expensive.  Model 3/Y took its place.  That didn't achieve any diversity.  It was basically just preaching to the same audience.  Sound familiar with this administration?  Doubling down was Cybertruck.  That did nothing whatsoever reach beyond Tesla's existing market. Instead, it soured support from existing owners... just like with voters.  Many abandon ship leaving only those blind to the problems to navigate.  They would rather crash than admit defeat.

Now tell us what the other legacy automakers are planning for their entire fleet.

Reduced Power.  A common complaint trend now is winter test-drives.  Dealers are getting their inventory of 2026 bZ and not tending to them right away.  A customer will come in wanting to take it for a spin only to find out the battery is cold, the charge-level is low, and the basic setup (which will trigger some calibration) hasn't been performed yet.  That leads to a horrible first impression.  Reduced power is what they are faced with.  That's something I rarely ever encounter, even when I'd think there would be an exposure.  In fact, I had to go out of my way to witness that situation.  Both on my recent videos captured it well, so I now have solid experience to leverage & share.  Today was just an ordinary winter drive, 37 miles with the temperature in the teens.  Someone asked for detail.  Here's what I shared:  I'm just south of the cities.  Today's drive was from Lakeville to Brooklyn Park, taking the battery from 38% to 20%.  Starting from an unheated garage and not plugged, I had full power.  Upon arrival, I could see the hash mark indicating reduced power.  But I don't ever really need all 338 hp anyway.  As shown in my recent video, by taking advantage of preconditioning, it makes me suspect cold is the major influence.  We'll find out in the summer when that is no longer part of the equation with low battery.  Even though I didn't plug in for about 45 minutes (a bunch of us were celebrating the 2-year anniversary for Ionna) and no preconditioning, charging was already up to 40 kW just 2 minutes into the session.  So I knew the battery had sufficiently warmed during the drive. It peaked at 90 kW, despite being only 19°F outside and quite windy.

Meanwhile, rollout of the upgraded bZ, the new C-HR and the new Woodland bZ are taking place here in North America.  What exactly is the problem with a bean counter overseeing that?  That certainly doesn't appear risky.

Whitewash.  It's always telling when an antagonist accuses you of what they just did, especially when it starts with a downplay: "Toyota is making OK moves now, but your feeble attempts to whitewash its earlier history don't change facts."  Attempts like that to confuse & mislead are common.  They won't go away for a long time.  You'll point out what Toyota's long term plan was all along and how that got followed fairly well.  They will panic upon realization of that being true.  Their own denial caused those facts to be overlooked or dismissed.  Oops!  Now that have to deal with fallout.  Claiming you are wrong somehow makes them feel they are right.  Ugh.  I followed up with:  Fact is, you're coming to the realization that history was so long ago those who purchased an "electrified" vehicle are now in the market for a replacement.  And since they had such a great ownership experience with the hybrid, it is an easy consideration to purchase something with a plug.   Ordinary consumers don't cross shop brands like early-adopters and enthusiasts.  That type of loyalty scares the heck out of you.  It is Toyota's reputation that's extremely difficult to compete with.

Video: 25 Hour Cold Soak.  Over 25 hours parked in single digit temperatures.  It was a great opportunity to find out what preconditioning (battery warming) could deliver for restoring power and speeding up DC charging.  I was not disappointed... 25 Hour Cold Soak

Sales Surge.  I'm tired of the nonsense, especially after seeing January results.  Sales of bZ raced to the top.  It's fresh, new and discounted.  We aren't getting the full compensation for loss of the tax-credit, but it is still substantial.  It's $5000 cash back still for purchase and $6000 for leasing.  Toyota can't afford that forever.  But for building a bridge to get away from past rhetoric with the previous generation, why not?  With all the other automakers struggling at the same time, there's a bigger payback for getting more of the upgrade out quickly.  That's why all the nonsense about being late is a reveal of desperation at this point.  They've got nothing to compete with.  That's what make posting this rather sweet:  "Late" was always a weak narrative in a market still dependent on tax-credits and seriously lacking public infrastructure.  Heck, even the plug standard (NACS) is only now starting to take hold.  "Just in time" would be the assessment now.  Look that the line-up taking shape... bZ, CH-R, bZ Woodland and bZ Highlander.  All of them target Toyota's own showroom shoppers, those who only now are considering a plug-in purchase.  A good analogy is being late to a tailgate party.  So what?  It makes no difference in how the actual game is played... breaking the status quo at dealerships.

Like you said, research over.  They will now check out what Toyota has to offer... bZ, C-HR, bZ Woodland, Highlander EV.

Many Unknowns.  I should probably say too many.  With so many unknowns, I'm trying to document as much as I can as fast as I can.  Strangely, the grip of winter seems to be slipping away already.  I certainly wasn't expecting that.  There will still be snow events, but the cold snaps appear to be fading away.  Nothing is in the forecast for the next 2 weeks.  So, I'm doing what I can to preserve details.  In this case, it's what I just experienced filming that recent drive & charge:  There are too many factors at play... especially without battery temperature data available.  My EV sat outside for 25 hours in single digits temps a few days ago.  I preconditioned for 15 minutes, then drove to the DCFC.  That came to 31 minutes of preconditioning. I could only pull kW in the 60s though, despite it being a 350 kW station.  Why?  Was it really a problem at the source?  Was it having to convert from CCS to NACS?  Was the battery still on the cool side?  Similar conditions the week before, but at a 400 kW station using just NACS, I was able to pull over 100 kW at the came SOC.  The number of unknowns makes it a pain to set reasonable expectations.