[Flickr.Com Creative Commons photo by Paul Gorbould]

Support electric cars? Don’t buy a Toyota

boycott-toyota
Toyota says no one is asking it to build electric cars. Okay! Then electric car buyers will go elsewhere for the car of the future, and, ideally, won’t go to Toyota to buy a car of any kind until it stops its anti-EV talk and walk.

editors-blog-entry3While there are other car makers who’ve been critical of electric vehicles, among them Honda and Hyundai, Toyota has clearly been the leader in EV disparagement.

Well, I’ve had it with the Toyota approach — which is to diss EVs at the same time as promoting fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen (you could do the latter without doing the former!).

That’s why I’ve started a petition on Change.Org asking other EV drivers and advocates to pledge to not buy a car from Toyota, not even a gas car (yes, a majority of EV drivers have a second car, usually a gas one).

We EV owners, who number in the hundreds of thousands worldwide, have lots of buying power, though Toyota, one of whose executives has been quoted as saying –> “No one is coming to our door asking us to build a new electric car,” doesn’t seem to think so and/or doesn’t seem to care.

We can put our money where our mouth is and show how powerful we are by collectively pledging to not buy a car of any kind from Toyota until it changes course on EVs.

Maybe Toyota still won’t listen when thousands, tens of thousands, or, yes — I’m thinking big here 🙂 — hundreds of thousands of people sign on to this petition and pledge not buy a Toyota.

But even if that’s the case, those who sign will get the satisfaction of telling the world what we think, and, of course, taking our buying power to other automakers who are investing heavily in EVs and EV technology, most prominent among them, Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW, and General Motors (Audi, Ford, Kia, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, and VW deserve honorable mention here — while Hyundai and Honda, which used to be my favorite automaker, get a thumbs down in my book).

It’s okay for Toyota to support a technology of its choice — by the way even though hydrogen gets a free ride in the media as being “clean” it is NOT any cleaner than the source of energy used to produce it. Funny how EVs, which, of course, have the same issue, don’t get the same free ride, isn’t it — as if hydrogen miraculously spontaneously creates itself out of thin air, eh?

our-clunkers
We owned a used 1994 Toyota Camry [far right] for six years until we sold it last year. It was a decent car, even after 300,000 miles. But I’ll never buy a new, or used, Toyota again thanks to Toyota’s anti-EV talk and walk. [Photo By Christof Demont-Heinrich]
But just because Toyota has the right to push its own views in terms of the future fuel of autos, doesn’t mean I have to agree with Toyota, or support it.

I have a right, as an individual consumer to throw my own economic weight behind companies (Nissan, you Rock!) that build what I want — what’s wrong with that?

Absolutey nothing!

In fact, it’s the American, or, really, consumer rights, way in a world driven by consumption and, ideally, consumer choice [Toyota, give us the choice to buy a true BEV in real numbers from you!].

“We, the undersigned, pledge not to buy a car of any kind from Toyota until which time the company ceases to disparage electric cars. Furthermore, we pledge to leverage our considerable global buying power to buy autos from car makers that are actively investing in, and supporting, electric vehicle technology, most notable among these: Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW and General Motors.”

So, please consider signing on to my Change.Org petition and pledge not to buy a Toyota until it changes its anti-EV talk and walk!

Here’s the final paragraph of my petition –>

“We, the undersigned, pledge not to buy a car of any kind from Toyota until which time the company ceases to disparage electric cars. Furthermore, we pledge to leverage our considerable global buying power to buy autos from car makers that are actively investing in, and supporting, electric vehicle technology, most notable among these: Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW and General Motors.”

Cheers!

Sincerely,
Christof Demont-Heinrich, Founder & Editor SolarChargedDriving.Com

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