Japan Car Inc predicted for years that switching to EV manufacturing would be no problem once battery prices went down in price. Toyota & Nissan had the biggest leads in the 1990’s with the Prius hybrid EV (launched 1997 in Japan) and the Leaf Hybrid which launched in 2010 way before that scrappy start up started producing EV’s. Toyota which became the largest auto manufacturer in the world after GM sold of many brands & closed numerous manufacturing plants around the world (goodbye Pontiac, Saturn, Oldsmobile, Saab, Hummer, and Opel – GM was the largest automaker in the world until 2008.)
Being the largest automaker in the world and leading in hybrid tech in the 1990’s, Toyota let China EV’s & Tesla surge ahead in EV tech and affordable EV manufacturing. Japan automakers kept saying they would mass produce EV’s when the market was ready for them and did not invest in EV tech & battery technology. Now, Toyota, Nissan, Honda & Suzuki risk being left behind in auto manufacturing as the industry is quickly converting into EV. The largest auto market in the world in China and Chinese auto market in already over 1/3 EV; actually it’s closer to 40% EV in new car sales in China. And Japan automakers are closing up shop in the largest car market in the world.
China informed all auto manufacturing in 2015 that EV’s must be sold in China as China transitions. Toyota, GM and others fought it and ignored it. Now they are losing market share and China EV’s are ahead in the auto industry.
Finally, Nissan & Mitsubishi have produced a mini EV super compact vehicle known as a kei car. Kei cars are tiny and fit in big cities well. Let’s hope that they expand production and learn how to make EV’s.
And what goes great a new EV? Paint protection film from TintDepot and ceramic tint. The PPF will protect the paint and add a beautiful gloss. The ceramic tint will reject the heat and keep you cool inside your EV. PlotterDepot offers FilmCut software that has tint & PPF patterns of vehicles to make it easier to cut out patterns. And we are offering PPF installation classes in November and tint classes too.
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