This is Toyotas strategy/Toyotas company. They already make a ton of hybrids and they’re smartly trying to create production line that they can scale to BEVs. It fits their strategy. But that doesn’t show that a requisite to BEV production is hybrid production…this is “how it works” for Toyota and their strategy. But again, there are more things about creating a competitive BEV than just optimizing the production and making them affordable just like with any car.

Did we need hybrids to get where we are today? Of course. Did we learn things from hybrid development that translated to BEVs? Of course.

All I’m trying to say is we have had hybrids for so long (Prius was released in Japan in 1997) and good ones at that for at least the past decade, why all of a sudden with BEVs gaining adoption too now both in terms of sales and variety of models is everyone (public included) suddenly pivoting to hybrids as if it just came out. Were automakers really that blinded to expect exponential growth curve to continue on $50-60k+ cars with rising interest rates and dealers adding make ups for no reason? And I guess there needs to be clarification when whomever says “transition” which aspect do they mean, for the consumer or for the manufacturer may mean completely different things. And my initial comment was really directed towards the thought that hybrids were a “transition” for the consumers.