The current Prius is legitimately cool looking. Hard to believe it’s the same family that had been lampooned for its design for most of its existence.

IMHO, Toyota did an awesome job of taking the 2004 Prius funny wedge compact eco-nerd-mobile look (which might have been exactly what it needed at the time), and making it look sleek and modern and powerful.

I'm imagining a designer looking at the earlier windshield slant, and knowing they could work with that, and retain references to the iconic earlier design.

Industrial designers are like stage magicians.

Toyota sold the most cars of any auto group in 2024.

They seem to understand the car market.

They also spent billions trying to destroy EVs. Don't underestimate power of oil and legacy auto's marketing and political influence.

It had little to do with oil, and a lot to do with their managements' irrational infatuation with hydrogen.

Toyota wasted a lot of time and money on that bet, and lost a lot of ground in the market.

> lost a lot of ground in the market

Toyota sells the most cars of any auto maker. What ground was lost?

It's clear Toyota has correctly assessed the market. They got it right.

As time goes on, BEVs will be a bigger percentage of the cars they sell. In the meantime they'll keep selling the cars they've got, including their current BEVs.

Given the initial success of the Prius, every Tesla you see on the road should've been a Toyota. (If not something from GM, who has even more experience in blowing an early lead in electrification.)

See also: Amazon's chances in an alternative timeline where Sears wasn't run by morons.

Tesla's own target for sales is to have sold 20 million cars in total by 2035. That figure represents a decline in annual sales for Tesla.

In 2011 Toyota sold 7.9 million cars. In 2023 Toyota sold 11.2 million. In 2024 Toyota sold 10.8 million.

Tesla's ambition is to have sold fewer cars in total in what will then be the 32 year history of the company than Toyota sold in the last two years.

Here's how 2025 is looking for Toyota:

https://www.autoblog.com/news/nearly-900000-cars-sold-toyota...

Toyota got it right.

Maybe it's more simple. Maybe Toyota just make cars people want to buy.

So you agree $2-3 billion they spend on advertising is a waste of money then?