Well, let’s see; the battery is a new type that promises plenty but has no real world tech, so it’s clearly made of imaginary materials.

Then there’s the styling, which makes the late and decidedly unlamented Pontiac Aztek look positively shapely… Soooooo it’s Fugly, too.

So what’s the point? Is Toyota just holding off building EVs as long as it can? The idea that it has world beating battery tech seems like a red herring.

Other luxury makers including Tesla and Lucid and cracking the range nut in a way that makes more sense; better efficiency so the available capacity goes further. This is far more attractive to me because it means even more energy savings and therefore lower costs of operation.

What size is the battery in the rental car? Probably not terribly big.

A 100 kWh battery will go 400 miles under favorable conditions so your 400 mile blast would have needed one charging session for long enough to get maybe another 40-50kW on board, or 15 minutes on a high speed charger.

I bet they get the same gas mileage.

1. Oil companies are getting desperate.

2. Car companies are stalling for time.