Toyota has just revealed the 2027 Highlander – which was designed back in 2022 or so, probably, when Toyota assumed that 2027 would be what Toyota expected it would be back then; i..e, a “market” of forced – by dint of regulatory compliance pressure and subsidization – “electrification.”
So, voila – the electric-only 2027 Highlander.
Which will likely cost Toyota a fortune and be cancelled by 2028. It will join other battery powered vehicles such as the F-150 Lightning that were conceived during the “Joe Biden” era that now resides on the Island of Unwanted Devices.
But Toyota went through with the debut anyhow, for essentially the same reason it’s hard for a man to stop when he’s not quite finished. A commitment had been made.
It takes several years, typically, to go from let’s do this to it’s done. There’s the conceptual/planning stage, followed by the actual designing it stage followed by the proving (it works) stage and then the production stage. It takes a lot of money to go from concept/planning to production and – naturally – you want to earn all that money back, ideally plus a profit. Else it’s a loss. One you spent years on.
Now, the smart money would be to stop losing money before you lose more.
Toyota assumed that – come 2027 – it could sell electric vehicles such as the 2027 Highlander because people would (effectively) be pushed into buying them, by dint of the government out-regulating the alternatives to them. Toyota also assumed that it would have to manufacture more devices come 2027 because by then, compliance pressure – the having to hew to standards regarding “emissions” (of CO2 particularly) and miles-per-gallon (which had been on deck to run to 50 MPG on average) that could only be hewed-to by making electric cars.
This is how the government – under “Joe Biden” particularly – gave a big shove to what has beens styled the “transition” (it sounds so natural) to electric vehicles. The problem now – for the car industry – is that things have changed.
Trump summarily ended the $7,500 tax credit that propped up EV sales – to the affluent, who were the only ones who paid enough taxes to qualify for the credit. The $7,500 credit served to lop off the equivalent of that much from the price of a device and that made the effective cost of a new device seem not entirely absurd, relative to something that the government didn’t give the buyer of $7,500 credit for.
But the main stake in the heart – if it can said that a battery has a heart – was Trump’s reversal of “Joe Biden” 50-plus MPG requirement and the dialing back of fines for not complying with the existing requirements. Without those requirements, battery powered vehicles effectively lost their reason for being. They are fundamentally political rather than economic products. Put in reverse, absent politics, there would be little – if any – economic case for the things and for that reason it is doubtful more than a small handful would be made for the tiny niche market that actually does exist for these things. 
Now we see what happens when the political rug is pulled out from under. More finely, we’re going to see what happens to Toyota.
No official announcement has yet been made about what this device will list for, but the general consensus is – no surprise – that the base version will start around $55,000. That would be a $10k increase vs. the price of the 2026 Highlander, which lists for $45,570.
But it’s not just the upsell that’s going to cost Toyota. It is the cost Toyota and everyone else still battling EV Fever seems unable to come to terms with. That being the preposterous time cost. The having to park and wait at a “fast” charger – the use of that word is kind of like the use of the word “vaccine” to describe a drug that doesn’t prevent you from getting sick – and wait there for even 15 minutes (let alone 30) when you have better things to do is what’s known in sales as a liability. 
Toyota – and the parrot press, which gets paid well to parrot – counters with jabber about the 2027 Highlander’s supposed 320 miles of fully charged range. Emphasis on supposed – because it’s a physical fact that EV range is often less than advertised. Not just a little less, either. In the very cold – or the very hot – an EV that might go 320 miles on a temperate day, on a mostly flat road and going mostly not very fast might only go 250 miles, increasing the time intervals spent waiting to recover charge. The constant hassle of this is simply something the majority of car buyers do not want to deal with and never mind the compounded liability of much-higher-than-average depreciation for EVs, on account of the inevitable need to replaced the wilting battery pack.
Never mind. Have another Dixie cup of Kool Aid, kiddos!
“As people get more familiar with the EVS, the market will grow,” says Toyota’s David Christ. “Obviously, the end of the government subsidies brought the market back a bit. But again, even if it’s 5 percent of the market, you still want to have offerings. I don’t know that it will be 5 percent of the market. I think it’s going to be bigger than that. We’re all in.”
Oh yeahhhhhhhh!
. . .
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Was sitting in the treatment room at the doctor’s office yesterday on a beautiful sunny day. The guy next to me was wondering if it was too soon to let the top down on his car. I asked him what he drove. Said a 1997 Solara. I had forgotten all about Solaras because never really saw many of them on the road. Then we got to talking about the Celicas/Supras of the late 70’s early 80’s, how pretty they were. I always wanted a Celica so bad. While we were talking a light blue—beautiful color of blue—-car went through the parking lot. We were wondering what it was. He thought it was a Porsche, I had no idea, because you can’t really tell now days what brand a vehicle is. Said he was going to drive over and find out when he got finished.
Still sitting there and saw his Solara go by, still looked very nice and just as good or better than newer vehicles. Anyway, the nurses were also looking outside, saw the vehicle and told me whose it was and what it was. It was a Porsche—looked brand spanking new. The female neurologist from across the street has it sent over to get detailed occasionally. I decided then, that I would start identifying as a neurologist so I could afford one. It was very pretty, but I like the old style ones better.
Need to add, he said he liked it because it was paid for—-I sure hope so–a 1997 plus it didn’t have all of the stuff on it—he held up his hand indicating the dash—that the new cars have.
People just want a simple car, that’s all. They used to build them and they still could if they would tell the government where to go.
But—-don’t expect any more buyouts. You fail, so what, your problem, not mine.
Wow, the timing couldn’t have been worse for Toyota on this turd.
Do I feel sorry for them? Nope. They could have and should have fought for their customers. And they didn’t.
The irony is that the few sales they get will cost Rivian sales.
EPA – CO2 = Obamacare reform. . .yawn
Toyota Expects the EV-Only Highlander to Sell in High Volume.
https://www.autoblog.com/news/toyota-expects-the-ev-only-highlander-to-sell-in-high-volume
What are they drinking?
The fast charger retort is asinine. Who’d want to stay in his car charging it for a half hour in a bad neighborhood?
I agree, Augustine!
So, apparently, does pretty much everyone else. EVs account for about 6 percent of all vehicles, which is to say they’re a tiny minority – because the majority is not keen on having to spend even 15 minutes doping around a Sheetz when they could be on their way after 3-5 minutes or so.
If youve ever lived among them you notice Subaru Toyota or Honda. Toyota, thus chosen, will be fine.
“Toyota also assumed that it would have to manufacture more devices come 2027 because by then, compliance pressure – the having to hew to standards regarding “emissions” (of CO2 particularly) and miles-per-gallon (which had been on deck to run to 50 MPG on average) that could only be hewed-to by making electric cars.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/climate/trump-epa-greenhouse-gases-climate-change.html
So Trump’s EPA guy Lee Zeldin upended the apple cart reversing course on the EPA’s CO2 regulations (along with 5 other “greenhouse gases” such as methane).
It’s never good to let up on the throttle when you’re gaining but at some point are you willing to consider that things ARE changing?
Hi Kyle,
Yes, of course. But is this a temporary abatement? I have an article coming that will address this at length.
Sure, it’s a regulatory action, not legislative. Those are always temporary. The whole regulatory system is in this way.
Why not view it as a positive trend that even MORE rules and regulations are now on the table as potential rescission?
We’re getting what we want, the rolling back of the bureaucratic state, aren’t we?
Isn’t this what you voted for? I know Limbaugh was a tool but he did often say the GOP likes to always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Hi Kyle,
I do view it as a positive. My worry is it’s a temporary positive. Stay tuned!
What changing is the EPA no longer views these gases as “endangerment” and thus won’t consider them as a public health issue.
The EPA took the 2009 Massachusetts v. EPA ruling as the green light. The ruling did not say the EPA had to use CO2, only that it may consider it. Obama’s EPA saw “may” and read “must” or “shall” instead.
Trump’s EPA decided that “may” actual could also mean we won’t.
Looks like the Grand Highlander is staying ICE. I guess they’ll see an increase in sales for that model. It’s cheaper too.
I think so, Klink!
Though someone’s going to have to pay for all these losses….
At this year’s CES the hot topic was Donut Labs “breakthrough” solid state battery. Samples were handed out to friendly tech media, blog posts and YouTube channels buzzed with weasel words and company supplied media and clips… and a lot of fresh hype. We’ve heard it all before: 10 minutes to recharge from flat, extremely high energy density, 100k charge cycles. And the green fools are falling for it again.
So let’s pretend Donut “Labs” has actually solved the battery problem. They’ve not done a thing to solve the electricity source problem, the distribution problem, the cost of electricity vs fossil fuels, or the inevitable loss of tax revenue currently flowing from gas pumps.
They say China has more installed solar/renewable energy in production than any other country. They also say that China is going to add about 191 GW more coal power in 2025. If they are really serious about EVs, which I think they are, they understand the electricity has to come from somewhere.
Soooooooo…If you’ve got a battery that can be charged from 0 to 100 percent capacity in 10 minutes and can take 100K charge cycles…How much does it cost? Can I charge it with a standard 110 volt outlet or even a 220 volt stove and dryer outlet? If I charge it on a fast vs. slow charge, will it last longer? There are just too many variables here.
‘Can I charge it with with a standard 110 volt outlet or even a 220 volt stove and dryer outlet?’ — Bryce
Not in ten minutes. Maff intrudes: volts times amps equals watts. Maximum amps are set by the circuit breaker. The time has been defined as 10 minutes. These circuits cannot deliver the needed kilowatt hours in that time — not even close.
And that’s true of most commercial chargers as well. Even with thick water-cooled cables, the amperage required is beyond their capacity, and often beyond what the grid can deliver from its high-voltage distribution lines.
Bottom line, I see their Donut Hoax battery. Then I lift my hind leg and wizz on it, marking my territory. Baaaaaattery pushers might get bit!
No superconductor no faster charging. Period.
Yeah, Jim, the math doesn’t math, nor does the physics physic here.
If it’s anything like wizzing on an electric fence, that’s a really bad idea. Take my word for it…
Here we go again, the magic battery that can be charged up in five minutes. Too bad that as myself and others here have pointed out there is no way in hell, now or in the future, that there will be an electric grid to support this.
I own a Toyota Highlander (from over a decade ago), but I would have never been able to tell that this was a Toyota, much less a Highlander, by looking at it. It just looks like every other shitty car they make today. Do the auto manufacturers all share the same design team? I am pretty good at guessing the make and model of a car, until it reaches about 2020; after that it resembles every other car on the road within that time frame. A Kia looks like a Lexus which looks like Volkswagen.
I can only surmise that COVID did exist, because creativity, fun, and originality no longer prevails in the auto market or any other market for that matter.
That’s how I feel also, RG – and I get to drive these things! The joy!
I find solace in the garage, working on the Trans-Am, which even in non-running status has more personality than these synthoid plasticized appliances. I could abide them if they were cheap. As in $15k. But at $50k? It’s as ridiculous as the dinner scene in Demolition Man. Remember? Stallone gets the rare treat of an evening out at Taco Bell.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZICXB0QtLo
But, it was a fancy, Taco Bell, Eric. 😉
Demolition Man is a documentary. The robotic blow up dolls will be arriving soon and it will soon to be illegal to exchange “body fluids” with another. Once that happens I will be holed up in a log cabin in some hollow somewhere pretending these idiots don’t exist. Actually, when they ban toilet paper and hand us seashells…I am outta here.
Ditto that, RG!
I’m just trying to figure out how to make it happen.
No worries RG,
Any time now the “connected” cars will automatically print out tickets and they can be used for toilet paper like Stallone did.
My favorite line from that movie is when he thinks he smells hamburgers cooking and Sandra Bullock replies “look around you, John Sparta, do you see any cows?”.
Spartan, not Sparta 😖
Hi Mike,
Those were the delicious smell of rat burgers. I am sure after a few years of no beef they probably taste just as good. 🙂
And as Eric has pointed out in past columns, the colours of newer vehicles are all of the same variation: White, blue, grey, black, tan, and the spectrum of them. Nothing fun, just four tires carrying around a box.
If you drive anything that stands out, bright corvette yellow, plum crazy, panther pink, lime green- you will brighten the dreary world.
Unfortunately you will also catch the jealous, hateful eye of the communist enforcers and be hounded for no good reason.
Ask me how I know.
I can put the pieces together as to how you know. Sadly, there are people out there in the world that are wound up tight, unhinged, and are waiting for that one wrong moment of time in their life to lash out at someone. Aaah yes, the “you have something I want but cannot have, so therefor, you should not be allowed to possess, either” mentality of said people. Ironic in how the divide-and-conquer strategy among people (by TPTB) still works even today.
Exactly
Outback – embarrasment = V(6)enza
“Time is money.” – B. Franklin 1748
I know, I know, environmentalists are all smarter than Ben. Ben was trying to get humanity beyond being dependent on the weather and whale oil. Today’s environmentalists want us to go back to the time before Franklin, et. al., lifted us out of that dependency.
Time for a little George…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4
Does not seem like Toyota and other jappanes car makers went full ev crap like some American brands saying everything will be ev Toyota seems to went for mostly hybrid cars but everyone made ev to satisfy the government I think Toyota is still the best brand by far but I wish they would go back to the 1990s such high build quality and vary reliable and the style was great not a cookie cutter space ship.
They should have done what Honda did. Honda just bought Chevy Traverse EVs and slapped a Honda badge on them. If they really smart, they would have set the deal up where they only buy them from GM if someone orders one.
The more “familiar” (and educated) I get regarding EV’s, the less likely I am to want one. Not that I ever did. Seeing how worthless they are in the real world, with real weather, real driving, and real problems, EV’s are akin to finding that ever-elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Morning, Shadow!
Driving one is the real “experience.” Not only are they soporifically boring and homogenous – this EV drives the same as that EV – the contantly having to monitor how much range you have left and when and how you’re going to get charged up again is a circle of Hell all its own!
I admit that I have never driven an EV, nor been a passenger in one. I saw one Ford Lightning this past Summer, and also the one EV that has the bizarre, triangle shape to it. Perhaps I am not missing much in not riding in an EV, I do not know. It is the constant, range anxiety that is the biggest negative. No spontaneous road trips to the middle of nowhere “allowed”, because you can, end up in BFE and stranded. Not like a gas guzzler, where you know can make it home safely. The cost of replacing the EV battery when it craps out on you is also a big negative. And the lack of charging stations? Yeah, no thank you. Let the virtue signaling masses who bow to Molech buy them, and leave the rest of us alone with our reliable, gas guzzlers and real engines.
But Shadow,
Cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimate change lol. We’ve gotta force EVERYONE who drives an automobile into an EV regardless of how much it costs or how inconvenient EVs are compared to gas vehicles. It’s telling that the biggest pushers of “EVs for all!” are the same Democrat politicians who constantly claim to be “Fighting for the working class”.
In all seriousness, people who buy the narratives on EVs are either the biggest chumps in the world, or they’re getting PAID to regurgitate narratives on EVs.
How to make the weather gooder.
https://img.ifunny.co/images/cd8aba113ac74021a3b4b29754cad1de941700a03dac065d85e1b25b1fec71c8_1.jpg
That’s funny, Horst! However, there are actually people who belieeeeeeeeeeve that.
I have driven one and was nearly scared at how fast it accelerated. I could get used to electric motors, but I’d never buy a BEV. Now, if only they made HEV with electric transmissions, I might give it a try if it were ludicrously fast.
Hi Eric,
“Soporifically boring” – thank you!
Roger that, sleepless! Thanks!
‘Have another Dixie cup of Kool-Aid, kiddos!’ — eric
‘In the 1930s, Edward Bernays’ Dixie cup campaign was designed to convince American consumers that only disposable cups were sanitary, by linking the imagery of an overflowing cup with subliminal images of genitalia and venereal disease. He was publicity director for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.’ — Wikipedia
Likewise, EeeVee Fever subliminally connected ‘tailpipe’ emissions with defecation, in classic Freudian fashion. By plugging your EeeVee into the garage wall, you can symbolically cleanse yourself, while distancing your stinky, shameful emissions to power plants in nowhere towns in Pennsyltucky or the Navajo Rez.
But that’s all over. The EPA has jerked the rug out from under its insane determination in 2009 that carbon dioxide is a ‘pollutant.’ So the plug-ugly 2027 Toyota Highlander — whose styling is inspired by the forgettable 2010 Ford Edge and later Land Rovers — is destined for a stillbirth.
So what / who cares? I just want to see auto makers encased in concrete shoes, and sunk to the bottom of the sea to repair our ailing coral reefs — for the children! Effing clowns!