[bombcar]

Hybrids really are nice, Toyota just doesn't have any stock at all in the vehicles I was looking for.

The key is they have hybrids at "normal car" prices - the basic Sienna is hybrid and comparable in price to the Kia Carnival and other non hybrid minivans; and much cheaper than the plug-in hybrid Pacifica.

The basic model Sienna just doesn't actually exist anywhere for purchase.

[twisteriffic]

My local dealer seems to have a scheme going that leads to them having a lot of very low km (like <2000) Siennas listed for 1.2-2x MSRP. I hope they choke on them.

[sarimkhalid]

What a shame.

From the article: "In the U.S., hybrid demand significantly exceeds production capacity, leading to tight inventories at dealerships, Miyazaki said."

I'll further my point about hybrid being such a low-hanging, realistic solution.

The core technology has been there since the late 90s. Every single major manufacture can quickly produce them. This doesn't have to be just daily family cars, the luxury market (Ferrari) and the 4x4 segment can also take advantage of this. There is already a hybrid Tundra available.

Lets take London for e.g. there are about 2.5 Million cars, lets assume if all of all them were to be hybrid, you would have SIGNIFICANT reduction in fuel consumption and costs to the owners, without ANY lifestyle change. You are not giving anything up as there is something available for everyone's taste.

No range anxiety.

I seriously do not understand why governments don't take this seriously.

[callalex]

Preface: I drive a hybrid, and I have since 2002, before they were cool.

The reason government incentives aren’t pushing hybrids now is that government policy is driven off of idealism instead of practicality. In the ideal world, a brand new hybrid is too little too late. A 2024 hybrid will almost certainly still be operating in 2040. By then we really need to be at near-zero carbon emissions if we want to have any hope of avoiding climate catastrophe. On the other hand the status quo means people are just buying gas guzzlers since they can’t afford/can’t practically use BEV.

[bombcar]

It's exceptionally disappointing, because there is no reason why you couldn't have a vehicle of type X (whatever type you believe is good and holy or whatever) that is a plug-in hybrid with a certain size battery.

But you could make it so it has different size batteries installable, either by end-user or dealer.

You sell the car with a 30 mile battery, and a year or two later it pops up a note that says "for only $Z you could upgrade your battery to one that would have meant you only filled up on gas once last year".

Range anxiety? Nonexistent.

Upsell? Present.

Improved mileage and emissions? Golden.

[ianai]

Plus you can linearly ramp up the BEV powertrain as tech and scale progresses over time while diminishing the ICE side. And eventually swapping in a hydrogen fuel cell is a possibility in the long term. (Not in the same vehicle, of course)