Unimpressed with Toyota's electric offerings, consumers are abandoning the automaker for rival Tesla.
According to analyst Tom Libby at Automotive News, Toyota tends to be "neck and neck" with competitors like Chevrolet and Ford, but a recent report from S&P Global Mobility showed that the Japanese automaker fell behind its peers in brand loyalty in the first four months of 2023.
The number of Toyota drivers who switched to Teslas doubled in the last year, according to Inside EVs. Tesla has the highest rate of brand loyalty, followed by Chevrolet, Subaru, Nissan, Kia, and Hyundai.
Electric vehicles are increasing in popularity since they can save drivers money on gas and have a substantially lower impact on the environment. Because gas-powered vehicles can emit more than 100,000 pounds of carbon pollution per year, driving an EV is one of the simplest changes you can make to your lifestyle to dramatically shrinks your carbon footprint.
In a thread on the subreddit r/electricvehicles, users sounded off against Toyota.
"I thought Toyota would've been leading the pack on electric vehicles. After the Prius I thought they would've continued down the path of electric. I had an 05' Camry that I loved but I waited and waited for an electric vehicle from them. Finally when the Lightning was announced, my car was almost 20 yrs old, and it was time for me to jump ship," one user wrote.
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"Our family owned exclusively Toyotas for 15 years or more. We now have a Tesla and a Volvo in our garage. Toyota has just refused to be competitive in the EV space which is mind boggling considering their history with batteries and the Prius. Tesla may not even exist if Toyota had worked their pre existing advantage and moved into EVs earlier," another user said.
"I owned Toyotas for my entire life. Would have kept going if it wasn't for their piece of s*** bz4x. I'm not buying a piece of crap because of brand loyalty," a third user commented.
To be fair, the bZ4X has drawn relatively solid praise from most auto reviewers, like Car and Driver, but the consensus seems to be that it's a bit overpriced, its name is a confusing jumble of lowercase and capital letters and a number, and as C&D wrote, "some rivals are more exciting on the road."
Toyota fans shouldn't despair, though. The Japanese automaker appears to have an ace up its sleeve, with an EV planned that reportedly may boast a 900-mile range and 10-minute charging time, which is being called "the Holy Grail of battery vehicles."
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