What if consumers decide that EVs aren’t better than combustion?
Toyota bets that many people will want only partial electrification
Electric vehicles are still too expensive to turn the eye of many mainstream Americans, but the atmosphere around gasoline propulsion has turned suddenly funereal: Activist investors and a judge this week inflicted powerful blows against the biggest players in Big Oil. And one of the last stubborn combustion holdouts — Ford — waved the white flag and said it is going electric.
The blood in the street has Wall Street’s approval: As recently as a week ago, Ford seemed to be still clinging to combustion, but on Wednesday, CEO Jim Farley finally said clearly that the company is breaking up with gasoline, inciting a bacchanalia by investors, who sent up Ford shares by 17%.
The big picture is a cold-sweat fear of the “Osborne Effect” — that consumers, seeing the oncoming headlights of EVs, will be both bedazzled by electric propulsion and fear the obsolescence of their combustion vehicles. Like a giant herd, they will then wholly abandon combustion, and buy out EVs. This dread is written all over Ford’s rushed and unseemly swerve to EVs.
But not everyone is beset by this apprehension. Specifically, Toyota — the world’s top-selling automobile company —…
