Toyota Chair: Don't Force People to Buy EVs

Our daughter has a Camry with over 260k miles. I've done all the work on it, and am impressed by its reliability.

He's stating the obvious. The irony is that it has to be specifically pointed out.

Leave us the hell alone to purchase what we want to own and use. The government does not have all the answers. And frankly this is merely another grasp at more control over us. FJB has f-ed up everything he has touched. Regan was right "I am from the government and I am here to help". BS And don't even think about touching my gas stove. You already ruined my washer.

Hydrogen fuel cells? Oh, yeah - - that sounds safe! Remember the Hindenburg!

Akio Toyoda is absolutely correct.

Toyota, sadly, has announced that if you want a Camry after this year, you WILL get a hybrid. THAT sucks.

RE #1: Before I bought the Corolla I am driving now, I drove a Toyota Previa with more than 340k miles on the odometer. I've said it before: you can't kill a Toyota unless you try to teach it to swim!!

Customers ARE making that decision and the popular answer is NO. I can't imagine that anyone who is smart enough to drive a Toyota would make that switch.

I drive a Corolla that is fast approaching 150,000 miles. It is the most reliable vehicle I've ever driven but I do keep it maintained. According to #1 and #7 it seems that my Corolla may outlast me!!

In more lithium battery news....a good friend who lives alone, an elderly woman, was out doing errands and when she returned home, the fire department was putting out a fire in her garage. Fortunately, a passerby called in the smoke and they got the fire out with only a nasty, terrible looking but pretty much superficial damage to the garage. She was doing her good "eco duty" and collecting dead batteries in a plastic bag on a metal cart in the garage to eventually take them to a recycling place. The batteries caused the fire. The fire dept folks said that the small 'button' batteries (I call them coin batteries) are causing a lot of fires. I keep some 2032 size in my drawer for replacement because the key fobs and remotes for the cars use them. She had replaced her fob battery the day before, tossed it in the bag. Poof. It is possible that a "dead" 9V battery was also in the bag, and perhaps the lithium coin style battery got across the "dead" terminals, getting just enough juice to bust open the lithium battery and spark the fire. The others were all alkaline AA and AAA cells, not flammable. There were several of the coin type batteries in the bag. I had never imagined that those comparatively tiny batteries were a threat. Be warned. The FD recommended wrapping a layer of tape around all 'dead' coin batteries before discarding. Personally, they go into the trash, as they get discarded. We won't "store them up" and increase the risk. If this happened with the car in there, full of gas, and her upstairs asleep, and no one passing by at 2 am....it could have AT LEAST cost her a car and home, and very possibly her life.

Not a Toyota fan. My wife's Camry was a bona fide disaster. Atypical? Maybe, but we never took a chance on another one. However, Akio Toyoda's comments are 100% spot on. So I'm a fan of the man if not the car.

My wife had a 1994 Camry, and when she sold it there were 284k miles on the odometer. I wouldn't hesitate to drive it from Seattle to Key West and back without a concern. When we sold her Camry, we purchased a Cadilac SRX and she loves it, but my Corvette gets better gas mileage. My ICE 2010 Corvette Grand Sport has 103,000 miles on it today. It burns no oil, gets 24.4 mpg, and can hit 185 mph on any given day. I'd purchase an EV as soon as Air Force One flies on 100% battery power. And how many EV cars were stranded on the side of a freeway this past week? Updates suggest that more than 10,000 EV motorists, that's what I call, S.O.L.! And, how about an EV burning down your home, or business or killing or injuring a loved one? MSgt USAF (ret)

Hybrid is the only way to go, in my opinion, and Toyota is the best of the best. Have owned four of the Toyota Prius models starting on 2008. Have loved each one. Never a problem. Only changed oil and replaced tires. Only mistake we made was not keeping each long enough. Each had about 70K miles on it. Just broken in. All got great gas mileage; about 60+ mpg on the highway. Just great vehicles. Teen wrecked the last one this month. Looking for another. They are in short supply as consumer demand has greatly increased for the Prius.

Re #11, your experience is 1 in a million. I have lots of friends who have run various Toyotas for very long times. My current 4Runner has just about reached 200K, and has had zero issues beyond brake pads and tires. Need to replace the pressure senders for the tire pressure warning system, after 18 years, finally the batteries ran out. Hondas and Toyotas, fantastically durable cars if taken care of. I'll never get a hybrid.

I am a gas guzzler guy and will never buy an electric vehicle, or accept a free one either.

Proud owner of a sweet '99 4-Runner. I love my buggy.

Seriously! And stop trying to take away our gas appliances.

2010 4R and 2016 ES 350 Fabulous cars. My niece drove my old Corolla past 299,999. For some reason, per Toy, the odometer did not roll. For a while, she manually kept track of the miles. She got up to 375k and then we donated it to a neighborhood help center. I won’t buy anything but Toy/Lex.

Honda and Toyota are the only two brands of car I've ever owned, and both are excellent with over a half million cumulative miles driven. If I ever buy another new car, it will likely be one of those two brands. For those of us in Flood Zone A, even hybrids are an unacceptable risk. It wasn't an EV--it was a hybrid (2013 Range Rover diesel) that started the fire that destroyed the garage at England's Luton Airport. Yes, an EV would have a been worse fire starter than a hybrid, but I've concluded that lithium ion batteries in any larger application than a laptop computer are unacceptably dangerous fire hazards, especially including e-bikes and e-scooters. I would never have one. Don't need a fire around here that can't be put out.

Re #19, we bought our first new Honda in 1986, second in 89. Cumulative on seven of them over that time period is over 1 million miles. No engine, transmission problems. One clutch replaced on the 86 Honda at 120K. An alternator, a radiator (corrosion, external from road salt), tires, brakes, coolant, lots of oil changes. One ball joint failure on a trip, but I was able to limp it to a shop and get in repaired same day....in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a pretty small city, back in the 1990s. The 4Runner is used mostly in the winter for the superb 4WD capability, especially in Colorado mountains. Thinking about moving up to something a touch newer, maybe 2012 4Runner or 2015 era.