[martythemaniak]

While Toyota has been busy looking for silver bullets that will solve imagined problems, Tesla has been scaling hard with good-enough technology. Their Q2'23 production is a hair under 2 million units per year, so they're already a mid-size OEM (the size of BMW, MB, Audi, etc).

[goethes_kind]

Maybe Toyota does not want to compete in the luxury EV business because they do not see a profit for them. Toyota's success was not built on their luxury models.

[pornel]

EVs (at least those with road-trippable range) are currently aiming for a "luxury-ish" segment, because it helps hide the cost of the battery.

Extra $8K on a $50K car isn't too bad and can be hidden by cutting costs somewhere else. But on a <$20K car there's nothing left to cut, and the extra cost takes it out of the budget segment.

[throwaway5959]

No one looks at TCO. A $28k EV vs a $20k ICE car will have significantly lower TCO over a ten year period. Oil changes alone will be $1200 if done every six months at $60 a pop.

[petre]

Don't they sell those under the Lexus brand? Toyota is their workmanlike brand.