EV news, page-1291

I am sure software (as in AVs) will be equally important as a reasonable range.

Mr Toyoda and the Toyota board have been caught with their pants down and after leading the world with their EVs 20 years ago with the Prius for some reason they decided to go with Hydrogen until recently and only time will tell exactly how damaging for Toyota that will be.

Well that's about the amount of crash protection it offers but seriously I understand it is actually a 4 seater and while we might pour scorn on the Mini EV they have done quite a remarkable thing to produce it at such a low cost. No western company could do it (despite GM being a co conspirator) and I can see a slightly more sophisticated vehicle selling very well in densely populated cities around the world if the CCP doesn't shoot themselves in the foot with their diplomatic efforts first.

Ride share and autonomous vehicles are no different than other EVs apart from the software and associated sensors. The early ones will probably have a larger premium than Teslas $10K but the cost will then diminish rapidly until it will be standard fitment to every vehicle sold. As an example the early steering wheel airbags fitted as an option to E Class Benzes in the late 80s cost over $10K and had its own dedicated computer. In real terms you can now buy a whole car with 6 of them controlled by one chip in the body control module for the same money.