It’s complicated to NO.

Peak gasoline consumption may have been in 2018. Gasoline demand will probably only continue to decrease from here on out.

That doesn’t mean that Gasoline supply will stay the same though. Refineries will be adjusted to make more of other products. In the short term, gas prices may drop because of over supply, but then supply will be cut.

As supply goes down we will eventually reach a point where gas becomes a niche product and it costs more again because it’s rare.

Interestingly realistic numbers, but that definitely puts plans in perspective.

It’s pretty clear that solid state is Toyota’s end goal, but they have been overly optimistic about it’s actual manufacturability.

This really doesn’t matter as long as they continue to develop other battery products and don’t focus of this 1 technology.

You can say the HV and PHEV is a patch, but it fills Toyota’s ongoing strategy. They see a slower transition to full EVs that most people on this sub would prefer.

The dealer markup is a separate issue. Toyota corporation doesn’t see anything from the markup at John Smith’s Toyota dealership. Their goal is to produce enough vehicles so that an individual dealer cannot markup a model due to scarcity.

For whatever reason, Toyota hasn’t been able to get the parts they need to build as many Primes as people want to buy (computer chips?).

I’m not sure if it’s fair to point fingers there, but I see 2 different strategies.

Ford and GM made some lofty promises that they got praised for, but in reality probably couldn’t pull off.

Meanwhile Toyota got a bunch of hate for not doing the same and stuck with a strategy that they could pull off.

If you want to blame anything else I’d blame protectionist politics. The IRA originally was written with breaks for union made products which was eventually modified to be American made or North American made. Toyota in particular does not have a North American battery supply, so this may have delayed some introductions until this plant is running.

No. There might some day be a market for range extender batteries but these are probably going to be for Towing.

In a single use situation an Air-Zinc or Air-Aluminum battery might work. These are single use.