There were being a great numerous thoughts when Toyota Motor Corp. very last week took the wraps off the battery-electric automobiles and other items that will generate it around the subsequent 10 years or so.
Some questioned the commitment for CEO Akio Toyoda’s sneak peek some questioned the correct amount of dedication of the world’s major automaker to BEVs, some just seemed at it as potential product on parade.
But neglect all that for a minute and focus, as I did, on that gorgeous blue bonanza that Toyota seems very likely to bestow shortly on its U.S. sellers: what it unceremoniously calls the Compact Cruiser EV, but what genuinely appears to be the lengthy-awaited return of the FJ Cruiser, albeit in BEV variety, and improved.
Practically 3 decades back, I wrote a column that argued that Toyota almost certainly wished it wouldn’t have specified the FJ Cruiser the ax in 2014, just as the newest off-road craze was kicking into superior equipment.
Considerably of my argument at the time was centered on ongoing applied selling prices for 2010-14 FJ Cruisers on the sector, which I seen as unmet demand.
Due to the fact that column, the marketplace has witnessed the two amazing need for Ford’s resurrected Bronco and other off-street nameplates these as the new GMC Hummer EV and Land Rover Defender, as perfectly as employed-vehicle charges that are now at stratospheric stages.
