Toyota is doing a great service by introducing non-EV enthusiasts to battery technology. People were once fearful of the Prius technology. People seem to be asking, "where can I charge" instead of "how much does it cost to replace the battery". This generation of hybrid owners will be less fearful of buying a pure EV next time around. That is at least how I see it.

The loaders and unloaders are still needed, but I thought the majority of drivers had a "no loading/unloading" stipulation in their job description.

@EP 20,000 gallons per minute per unit. 3 units = 60,000 gallons per minute https://tucson.com/business/local/palo-verde-nuclear-plant-s-use-of-wastewater-defies-drought/article_59b758cb-1106-5197-84ee-96e3935bd208.html I recently took a tour. They like giving tours because at the end, one sees all the safety steps implemented, and you walk away feeling convinced that the nuclear waste is very small - you can see the small number of containers stored since day 1 of operation, and that the chance for an accident that would actually leak radiation is very small. The article quoted 92% for Europe, while quoting 80% for some countries by 2050. I can believe the 80% for some countries, but Europe seems a stretch. Fusion reactors could change the game. While on the topic, a tesla power wall currently stores ~13 KWh. If all transportation is to go electric by then (which I think may happen even sooner), then there will be a lot of batteries sitting in people's garages with 50 to 75 KWh. If those batteries can be tapped for storage, then most households will have quite a bit of potential storage at their disposal. We are living in an era of rapid change, it is difficult to see around the curve when the progress isn't linear.

But at least coal is on the way out. Nuclear is good in certain regions - needs lots of water. Palo Verde plant west of Phoenix takes all of the phoenix waste water, treats it, uses it for cooling in the outer loop (inner loop is a closed system) and evaporates 95% of it into thin air. Only plant I know of that does it. I'm happy that coal is going away. Solar and wind, mostly wind, can still provide more energy than they are doing so now. Economics are going to drive the grid cleaner - technology moves a lot faster than politicians.

As my high-school physics teacher once said, "The electrons come with the wires. They are not created or consumed." The batteries or generators just push those electrons around in a closed loop. Open the loop and the electrons stop moving (under all but extreme circumstances).

I agree that software and Toyota in the same sentence makes me cringe. Nevertheless, glad they are throwing 1B at it. At the very least, it will train people in this field who can later go work in this area at another company that might actually make progress.

Wonder if this includes miles driven by taxi services? More young people and people living in a large city are opting to not buy a car, but still take taxis.

maybe this link will be easier to click on https://youtu.be/duWFnukFJhQ ...

This is encouraging. Play at 2x speed so that it only takes 35 mins to get through. Pour yourself a glass of wine or beer and enjoy. https://youtu.be/duWFnukFJhQ Tony Skiba on the disruptive nature of clean energy and EVs.

Since they are way off on their assumptions about the transition to EVs, the conclusions of this article are worthless. I'm estimating that they won't get it right until ~2023 to 2025.

The worst car I ever owned was a Cadillac Catera. But your point is that their high end luxury brand should electrify first, which is Tesla's strategy as well. We shall see if GM screws it up. My opinion is that they won't be the worst, but they will be late to the game and they will cut corners in reliability.

@Lad - exactly! Agree 100%

I don't see biofuel as a sustainable long term solution, so I'm not disappointed to see the EPA's enthusiasm for biofuels wane. In 50 yrs, I hope that tailpipes will be a rare sight.

When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. However, I think it is good that research continues, because I don't think annual sales of contraptions using ICE engines will go below 1% of what they are today until at least 10 to 15 yrs from now at best.

Yawn. This should become irrelevant in 10 yrs. Nothing to see here. Keep moving.

The world is moving toward clean energy. In 100 yrs, our energy generation will be fine. In geological time frames, 100 yrs is nothing. It would be ironic if we miss the tipping point by a mere 100 yrs and doom us all. Let us hope we haven't just missed it by 100 yrs. Remember the opposite as well - what if we were to have 5000 ft tall glaciers occupying all of canada down to Iowa for 1,000,000 yrs. That would be hard to deal with too.

Germany still has a lot of coal generated electricity. They are stuck for the moment.

2030? They won't be around in 2030.

Too cool I must say. We are learning so much these days. Hopefully it is in time to save us from ourselves.

advanced high strength steel

Yes, this is about their manufacturing footprint and not the output of the cars they sell footprint.

Yes, but why do they all whine so much about improvements. Bunch of cry babies. But yes, I'm glad they are ahead of schedule and have shown that it is possible.

Yay! Go Nissan!!!

Yay Science!

Good points. One is not going to get 37 KWh for only an extra $2k. But 25% better fuel mileage for only $2k more is pretty dang good. But that is still only about 30 mpg, but for an SUV, really good. However, I'm not sure I could buy any car again with an ICE engine. The pickup truck needs replacing, but I can't bring myself to buy an ICE truck, so I have to hope my current truck doesn't croak.