This archive report was first published on 24 December 2019.
Published on December 24, 2019, by BARAZA JM, a Nation author.
Thank you for the good work. The humour and the artistic way in which you solve our car problems has never waned. You never disappoint us. Now, I have only one concern about cars. Why are makers of the Volkswagen, Subaru and Mercedes not making hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and Honda Fit shuttle that use rechargeable batteries. Could it be that the technology is not dependable?
However, Volkswagen has sold a hybrid Touareg for a while now, and the company has vowed to go fully electric going forward. Mercedes makes mild hybrids, and Subaru, known for its unique approach, has always been a leftist kind of entity that prefers to tell it like it is. They admit that climate change is real and that their all-wheel drive dependability is essential for driving in neo-apocalyptic conditions.
Subaru's website has a page called Subaru Loves the Earth, where they talk about their zero-waste factories and PZEVs - Particle Zero Emissions Vehicles. However, they do offer hybrid models like the 2020 Forester and Crosstrek/XV.
Hybrid tech is not only dependable but also easily adaptable. The infamous ex-BBC Top Gear trio of Clarkson, Hammond, and May built a hybrid out of hardware store materials, and it worked. That being said, hybrid powertrains are more of a stop-gap measure in the march towards a fully electric future.
Porsche appears to have skipped the hybrid step and gone straight into the sea of electrons with the Taycan. The car of the future will run on electricity, and the future is here. Governments and the private sector are investing heavily in electric vehicle development, and China, the world's largest car market, is also EV-centric.
Electric car sales in China are predicted to resurge next year, with sales of 912,000 electric vehicles in the first nine months of 2020, a 13% increase from the year-earlier period. The Prius may have started this hybrid craze, but it is currently being massively outsold by the RAV4 and Corolla hybrids.
Toyota doesn't have enough batteries for the RAV4 hybrid, and the next quick thinker is going to work to plug this gap. Car makers are actually downsizing their workforces to channel that funding towards even more investment in electric cars. Around 80,000 jobs between Germany, the US, and the UK will vaporise over the next decade.
