WDU Special: “Happy 20th Birthday, Prius”
We spent almost two hours talking about the history and impact of Prius on the world. Current and former members of the Prius Team from Toyota join us for the first hour. It’s a great look back at one of the biggest impacts in cleaner vehicles. We’re all current and previous Prius owners and Prius enthusiasts. But when asking about previous decisions and future plans, that doesn’t mean we went easy on them.
Supercar article referenced by Tony: https://whatdrives.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SuperCar.pdf
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#385 Tail Gating on the Moon
This week, we talk about the ongoing Nikola saga, solid state batteries in Mercedes buses, This Week in Tesla with new catchy theme music, Plastic eating enzymes, a cheap EV in China, and Toyota’s Lunar Cruiser.
00:00 Show Start 05:15 New Allegations with Nikola Motors
13:00 Mercedes Introduces Solid State Battery Buses
20:05 This Week in Tesla
28:55 Plastic Eating Enzymes
40:30 A $5,000 EV in China 49:25 Toyota’s Mars Rover
54:10 Shout Outs and Go Home
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batteries, battery, bus, china, EV, LE, nikola motors, solid-state, Tesla, Toyota
#380 In 2025, I Promise
00:00 Intros
04:13 – Hybrids, Plug-ins, and EVs
25:15 – Xos Raises $20 Million to Scale Production
32:30 – This Week in Tesla
37:05 – Toyota Solid-State Batteries
43:15 – Tritium Fast Charger
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batteries, EV, hybrid, LE, Plug-in, solid-state, Tesla, Toyota
#373 Body Bags are Extra
- American Airlines has started filling their planes to capacity during a pandemic.
- Toyota is severely limiting the supply of the RAV4 Prime for some reason.
- California is mandating that all commercial trucks be fully-electric by 2045.
- 2-sided solar panels that track the sun can increase energy production up to 30%.
- Minnesota is suing ExxonMobile and Koch Brothers for damages caused by their disregard of their own research.
- All Americans need to support the “Moving Forward” act.
- Hyundai has introduced an all-electric shuttle bus.
- Oslo is testing inductive charging for taxis.
- Electrify American has completed their first cross-country charging network.
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bus, California, Charging, commercial, electric, EV, first, Hyundai, LE, prime, RAV4, solar, tax, Toyota, truck
20 Minutes on the Toyota Supra
Russell spent a week with the Toyota Supra and put together this review.
# 369 2020 is Going to Kill Us All!
- Please make the world a better place. Join a sit in if that’s your thing. If you’re more of an introvert, make sure you do your research and vote. Get your friends and family to vote. Change the world. It’s the least you can do.
- Russell spends – literally – a few seconds teasing about his upcoming Toyota Supra review.
- There are dealers in the US right now selling Jaguar I-Pace for up to $21,000 USD under MSRP! Seriously consider picking one up.
- Toyota announced RAV4 Prime pricing and – all things considered – you can get a RAV4 Prime for less then a RAV4 Hybrid.
- Bicycles are better for you and the community. Go Ride a Bike!
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2020, Better Place, Eco, EV, hybrid, LE, prime, RAV4, RAV4 Hybrid, review, Supra, Toyota
#368 Let’s Return to Better
- Russell spent some time with a Tesla Model Y and a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Both reviews are available in our “Car Reviews” playlist. Make sure to check out “The Tesla Life” to get Russell’s full Model Y review.
- Toyota recently introduced the PROACE van, offering a warranty of 15 years or 1,000,000 miles, whichever comes first. After that time, they promise the battery will still have 75% or more capacity remaining.
- People will only return to riding the bus when they feel safe doing so. We spend some time discussing how buslines can maintain ridership by helping people feel safe.
- BloombergNEF predicts that by 2040 new car sales will favor EVs over ICEs. Interesting side topic, they also predict that ICE vehicles peaked in 2017.
- Volvo has taken the bold step of limiting the top speed of all new vehicles starting next year. This will be done in the name of safety, referencing the amount of vehicular fatalities attributed to high speeds.
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2017, battery, bus, Car, EV, first, hybrid, LE, Model Y, review, Tesla, Toyota, van, Vehicles, Volvo
#367 Tried and Died
- General Motors and LG Chem have formed a joint venture to create batteries for EVs. They are calling it Ultium. The factory will be in Lordstown, OH. It’s expected to employ more than 1,000 people. This could be a really big thing. Here’s hoping.
- Toyota introduced two new hybrids to their fleet: Venza and Sienna.
- Russell just finished spending a week with the 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. There are things he really liked. And then there are other things.
- In case you didn’t know, Dyson (yes, the vacuum company) announced a while ago that they were developing an electric vehicle. After actually creating a very nice looking prototype, they have announced that they are abandoning the effort. Reportedly, Dyson realized there was no way to manufacture and price the car such that it would be even remotely profitable. Let’s hope they continue the idea and work on a lower-priced car they can bring to market.
- GM had created an e-Bike called the Ariv (pronounced ‘arrive’). They had a standard version and a folding version. Sure it looks a little quirky, but in a time when e-bikes are seeing a huge uptick in sales, GM kills theirs.
- We’re about more than just vehicles. We like the whole circular lifestyle of generating your own electricity, storing it in your own batteries, and using that electricity to power your house and/or charge your car. However, far too many utility companies few residents with solar panels as competition. They work very hard to make going solar difficult and fins ways to punish the homeowner after the panels are installed. We decided to take a little time and talk about how utilities companies can be real jerks.
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2020, batteries, Car, e-bike, electric, EV, General Motors, gm, hybrid, LE, LED, solar, Toyota, Vehicles
audio only,Chicago Auto Show,What Drives Us episode
#353 AWD and the Chicago Auto Show
1) Russell has just returned from a Toyota event in which he was driving their brand new AWD systems they are introducing in their sedans.
2) Tony and Jon B spent two days at the Chicago Auto Show and provide their impressions of what they saw.
3) Jon B provides speculative insights as to what the upcoming RAV4 Prime might reveal about possible changes coming to the Prius Prime.
4) Jaguar is having to temporarily stop production of the I-Pace due to a battery shortage.
5) Why is it extremely possible that ICE vehicles are not going away anytime soon?
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auto show, battery, chicago, EV, LE, prime, Prius, prius prime, RAV4, reveal, Toyota, Vehicles
audio only,What Drives Us episode
#352 EVs Everywhere!
1) Russell teases that he’s been invited to a Toyota AWD event. More details in a future show.
2) Simon Wecker, a guy in Berlin, Germany, pulled 90 cell phones – all with Google Maps active – through empty streets. Why? Because Google interpreted all that data to mean that the streets were congested with 90 cars, all barely moving along. The result was empty streets thanks to Google routing everyone around Wecker and his wagon of phones.
3) Hyundai is doubling their Kona EV production be adding a second factory. This is in response to the Kona’s massive demand, which Hyundai is not able to keep up with.
4) The new US Building Codes will call for new homes in the US to be manufactured “EV Ready”.
5) Rivian and Amazon are designing and building a custom EV Amazon delivery van. It’s kind of cute.
6) We’re relatively excited to see that there are EV trucks coming to market. Americans love their trucks so if we want to win them over we’re going to need electric trucks.
7) Toyota is introducing new technology to safe stupid people from themselves. This new software will detect when someone mashes the accelerator rather than the brake and make sure the car doesn’t surge forward. Because, let’s face it, unexpected acceleration was really human error all along.
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Car, Eco, electric, EV, future, german, google, Hyundai, LE, LED, Software, Technology, Toyota, truck, van