Reputational Harm.  Supposedly, there's a lot of it and it's really bad.  Where?  What?  Who?  This was the comment to that affect today: "I would add the EV manufacturers as a whole haven't done themselves any favors by continuing the "over promise, under deliver" theme with the continuous hyping of solid-state batteries being "just around the corner".  Interestingly, a single EV featuring a solid-state battery will soon be rolled out in China.  So, even that comment is a bit off.  The specifications are still a mystery, so there are no expectations to fall short on.  Such vagueness means no harm.  It's that refusal to state goals problem again.  Enthusiasts know that reputation is subjective.  So, no matter what happens they can claim otherwise.  Ugh.  Nonetheless, I was still curious if it was possible to get a constructive exchange on the topic.  So, I asked:  I'm intrigued, what's the promise?  Toyota has clearly stated very low volume for awhile, emphasizing limited availability for several years after introduction.  What's been promoted is the simple fact of actually delivering something that will eventually become a choice for consumers.  Cold hard reality is most people couldn't care less about any vehicle with a plug, so they don't even pay attention.  From their perspective, when infrastructure is finally built up (DC common at grocery, retail and gas locations and available for apartment renters) they will take a look at what's available.  To them, that is "just around the corner".  I've grown accustom to how painfully slow adoption of any new green technology has been.  So looking at comments about reputational harm, I know that doesn't hold much (if any) weight with regard to mainstream sales.  That's why I'm intrigued.  What influence has the hype had on this audience here?

In short, you were indeed deceived.  It just wasn't from the source assumed.

Video: Heavy Snow and X-Mode.  I set out to create a video documenting my commute home, hoping for nice scenic winter footage after a fresh snow.  To my surprise, I ended up with the cameras rolling while driving conditions turned ugly.  I wasn't expecting conditions to worsen so much that it would become a drive in heavy snow with the opportunity to use X-Mode.  What a great stroke of luck!  I still got that efficiency data, but the video itself turned into a whole lot more.  Hope you find this both informative and entertaining...  Heavy Snow and X-Mode

Think about what the market will be like in a few years.  With DCFC common and cheap used EVs, the shopping experience will be entirely transformed.

About EV Owners.  Appealing to existing EV owners is what enthusiasts think this is about.  They're still trapped in that mindset of the market being limited to just a niche.  For some reason, that message of growth requiring diversity isn't getting through yet.  In other words, for the vehicle to be appealing, it must satisfy the limits & thresholds they deem essential.  Ugh.  They don't see the change.  I fired back into today's nonsensical argument discussion with:

We already know how this will play out.  As other legacy automakers deal with fallout from being so overly optimistic, Toyota will quietly roll out a variety of choices and build reputation along the way.

My 2023 bZ4X reminded me of 2001 Prius ownership, so much so it was like following a predetermined timeline.  When the 2026 bZ came along, it was an upgrade exactly like when I got my 2004 Prius.  That repeat gen-1 to gen-2 transition is quite familiar, such vivid memories from over 2 decades ago.  The improvements from Toyota check so many boxes, it's obvious that gen-3 will be so normal the decision to purchase will come down to which body style and battery type.

We already know Toyota doesn't intend to upgrade ICE vehicles beyond what is getting rolled out now.  They'll milk those designs to the end.  Of course, with hybrids we know swapping in a better battery is a simple path forward.  Heck, we'll see some of that with upcoming BEV choices too.  Point is, the paradigm-shift has begun.

For me, I'm watching an explosion of DC fast-charger builds.   Gas stations are getting transformed to inviting places to stop for a charge and a snack... Kwik Charge, CircleK, Pilot.  Grocery & Retail stores are getting into the game in a big way too... Target, Hy-Vee, Whole Foods.  And of course, fast-food is jumping onboard with their support too... McDonald's.  So it's more than just independent efforts like Tesla & Ionna stirring interest beyond automakers.

In short, the hesitation & denial we're seeing now will simply fade away in a few years... even without tax-credits.

Being Informed.  I found this especially interesting: "Toyota needs to publish battery temp/SoC/power curves so buyers can make an informed decision or derate their EPA estimates.  One could imagine this as a class action at some point."  That reminded me of how some information published by Tesla has become lawsuit material.  Those EPA estimates were found to be quite a bit over-inflated.  What become of that?  No clarification or adjustment came about.  Tesla owners just ended up having to accept the difference.  It was a Tesla owner lashing out at Toyota who posted that comment, which likely came about from me pointing out Tesla's absence of progress.  It's rather bizarre watching the proclaim industry leader not leading; yet, enthusiasts continue pretending nothing is wrong.  That's why I try to get people to focus on learning what is beneficial to learn for all EVs.  They should be asking for more information from all automakers.  Don't just single out Toyota portraying the situation as theirs along.  Ugh.  This is how I wrapped up that circular argument:  That's the circling the drain part.  Other automakers don't.  So when Toyota does, people freak out.  Most of that is simply overly inflated from not understanding what the information actually conveys.  This is where software updates come into play.  Those curves can be adjusted based on real-world findings.  The part not to overlook though is the ability we have to manually precondition.  Also, I'm happy to notice the bigger picture at play.  Driving with lower SOC appears to be far less of a concern now.

Efficiency Advantage.  I was delighted to see some critical thinking take place.  It was incorrect; nonetheless, it was a valid effort.  Consider this: "I don't think lack of charging is the issue, its that 280 miles of EPA range probably means closer to 200 miles of highway range in ideal temps and even less in the winter.  77kwh isn't a large battery for what is likely to be a relatively inefficient EV.  This is one reason why Hyundai and Kia moved to 85kwh batteries for the Ev6 and Ioniq5."  That's called not researching.  I had myself got caught in an assumption.  Owners of EVs with 800-volt systems always presented their advantage as being both charging-speed & drive-efficiency.  The higher voltage (most other platforms are 400-volt, including Toyota's) should deliver those improvements, but some don't actually.  I stumbled across the true outcome, and was more than happy to share it today:

There's good reason why more battery was needed:

2025 Kia EV6 Long Range AWD 20" wheels delivers an efficiency of 35 kWh/100mi.

2026 Toyota bZ Limited AWD 20" wheels delivers an efficiency of 29 kWh/100mi.

That's a really big difference, where range isn't the issue.  Operating cost is clearly much lower for the Toyota.  Saving some cost from needing less battery is an obvious advantage too.  Also note that the Toyota has a higher ground-clearance, which makes the efficiency advantage stand out even more.

Practical Thinking.  This was not: "Toyota just killed the Highlander."  At what point do you just have to stop?  Every enthusiast proclaiming the "all in" pledge was a great idea supported a hard transition, where a model-year simply becomes the last with a gas-engine.  How come when Toyota actually follows through with what they suggested, it is now a bad idea?  The hypocritical nature of online posting is no surprise.  There is no consequence for abandoning promises.  Meanwhile, those who doubted double-down.  The point is to not admit defeat.  Toyota was supposed to be going bankrupt at this point.  Instead, Toyota is showing a great deal of potential from being practical.  Go figure.  Since there's nothing to learn at this point from playing defense, I tend to ignore many of the disparaging comments now.  However, there is the reward from setting up "you were told" messaging.  It shouldn't take long before they notice the paradigm-shift is underway and they were wrong.  So, I posted:  Thinking any gas model will survive beyond a next-gen offering is futile.  EVs significantly improve with each new generation and we can already see how well this newest delivers a practical driving experience.  As a Toyota owner who stepped from hybrid to plug-in hybrid to electric-only, I know it's only a matter of time before you make the same observations.

Market Propaganda.  Beyond the narratives is an overlying theme of "us" verses "them".  Some feel an antithesis is required for them to gain a sense of progress.  In other words, enthusiasts believe relative measure... as subjective assessment... is more effective than an actual objective look.  This is how the "EV market" perspective came about.  Rather than looking at sales as a whole, they only measured progress of change within their isolated influence.  That's how I knew both Volt and Bolt would be disastrous failures.  It was the lesson learned from Two-Mode.  GM was unable to appeal to their own loyal customers.  So when their plug-in offerings only generated conquest sales, it was a warning that nothing was changing at dealerships.  The status quo remained intact.  That's how propaganda comes into play; it serves as a distract to evade having to confront those failures.  It is still attack Toyota with: "Read "profit driven" or "greedy".  Toyota has been anti-EV in lobbying for a long time, along with advertising.  All to ensure massive ICE profits."  Anything to direct attention elsewhere is key.  I fired back at that nonsense with:  All automakers are profit driven!  Toyota observes the mistakes others make, then follows with a knowledge learned from the price others paid.  In this case, we can literally see the Ford, GM and Stellantis write-downs from overly optimistic BEV plans.  The market wasn't ready.  Battery advancements and infrastructure build-up are still on-going... not quite ready to compete with ICE directly yet.

Route Planning.  We're getting into the vague, again: "There's still no built-in route planner."  That is patently false.  I knew he meant "multi-stop" type planning.  But that is pretty much never asked about in reality.  With all the EV events I attended last year, that was a big takeaway.  People simply asked about how to get up to their summer escape.  They have a cabin they run off to from time to time during the warm season.  That doesn't require multiple stops.  Heck, some can be reached even without charging along the way.  Think about it.  Those types of drives are at most 4 hours.  Ours is less than 3.  That equates to just a single stop somewhere... which means "planning" is to simply find a DC fast-charger along the way.  That is indeed what Toyota has delivered.  So, claims of nothing being available are incorrect... intentionally misleading... vague.  Rather annoyed by the attempt, I replied with:  Yes, there is.  Odds are the review vehicle either didn't have Toyota services enabled or the reviewer didn't try using the phone app.  You just click "Find Station" from the main screen, search for a location, then click from the Charging Station list presented.  At that point, you just press the "Send to car" button.  If you have enable the preconditioning option to work with navigation, it will automatically start preconditioning for you.  If not, you can turned it on manually.

Penalty.  Those who don't learn will pay.  Cause of costs like that are often invisible, so easily dismissed they are never recognized as an influence.  That's how comments like this come about: "Toyota was never advocating for anything new and better as far as I saw."  Enthusiasts push so hard their messaging of "class leading" being a necessity, they fail basic economics.  That's why it is so easy to argue with them.  They don't understand the basics of business.  I provided some wisdom in that regard:  That's a common theme, not seeing what you want to see.  It's like how enthusiasts only recognize "leadership" in one manner, dismissing all other approaches.  Reality is, this has been a tortoise & hare race all along.  Enthusiasts were upset about how slow Toyota was progressing.  As a result, narratives came about to make them feel better.  Now, we see those who raced ahead taking massive write-downs and Toyota passing them without having to face that same penalty.

That's why short-term outcome was never much of a concern.  It's not about selling as many EVs as possible right out the gate.

Toyota Attention.  With the other legacy automakers struggling to deal with losses and Tesla circling the drain, there's a lot more attention being focused on Toyota from those shopping to purchase something.  That's refreshing.  Rather than rhetoric, we have lurkers starting to speak.  That is most definitely a sign of change.  It's how the paradigm shift begins, when those who are normally silent can now be heard.  This is such a comment that especially got my attention: "People who had a good experience with their last Toyota and go to the dealer for the next one will buy it.  Some because it's the new shiny thing, some because their plug-in hybrid gave them a taste of the electric life, some because they loved their Prius and the new "Prius" is now a squashed fastback with no headroom and very constrained cargo space."  That was a chance some never saw coming.  They somehow expected Prius to become more and more normalized.  Such a transition never made sense.  The ultimate goal was to get the all-time best-selling vehicle in the world to become a hybrid, Corolla.  That's normal.  You can't get any more mainstream than that.  It meant Prius would either disappear or become something exotic, because the high-volume seller is Corolla... which is available as a hatchback in other markets.  I pointed out that reality with:  Toyota diversified, a necessity for growth which Ford and Tesla have struggled with.  That's why Prius evolving into a sporty niche is a win-win.   If you're still a die-hard fan of a standout vehicle, great, buy that.  If you aren't, buy a Camry or RAV4 instead.  That's exactly what we see happening with the BEV choices.  Highlander will carry the legacy appeal with a comfortable family interior and decent cargo space.  Then the others don't have to follow that template.