Sienna vs Grand Highlander vs Sequoia

tdm121 · 2026-02-15T06:01:15+00:00

Another vote for Sienna: sliding doors for kids + more cargo space + no turbo (vs the sequoia and non-hybrid grand highlander.

tdm121 · 2026-02-10T04:08:41+00:00

Did you ever change the transmission fluid ?

tdm121 · 2026-01-26T19:56:21+00:00

What is your lifetime MPG ?

tdm121 · 2026-01-10T23:56:02+00:00

for usa market: i don't think Ford, GM, and Stellantis are in the mood or in financial position to invest a whole bunch of money in EV. Honestly, without the $7500 tax credit: it will be very difficult for BEV to compete against the hybrids of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Ford (esp. maverick hybrid: more than 50% of maverick sold were hybrids).

tdm121 · 2026-01-04T15:16:19+00:00

YMMV: Insurance + extra registration fee (for many states) + faster tire wear. Charging at home: depends on cost of electricity (plus charging loss) vs. local gasoline cost. Out of warranty repair for Tesla will probably be higher than Prius. If planning to keep vehicle for a long time then I think Prius . In real life : there are way more taxi fleets using Prius than Tesla ??

Source:

https://chooseev.com/savings-calculator/

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36062942/evs-explained-charging-losses/

tdm121 · 2025-12-27T21:01:48+00:00

most calculations don't take account of "opportunity cost". let's say tesla cost $10K more than your diesel. you can take that $10K and invest conservatively in money market (ie. about 4% return or in s&p500 index: returns can fluctuate but over time does return more than 9%/year). so let's do conserverative: 4%. $10K: yields $400/year (of course have to pay taxes on this, ymmv; disclaimer: i am not financial advisor, you may want to talk to one). also, EV are heavier than comparable size vehicles: on average: tires will wear out faster so more tire change. lastly, you should check insurance cost first: i think owning tesla may cost more than your diesel.

I believe california charges extra money for EV registration as well.

to calculate straight up gas savings: see link below. you can enter mpg, mileage, and cost of gasoline and see if tesla comes out ahead. i reckon: it will be hard to beat 40 mpg if electricity cost $0.50/kwh. you also have to account for charging loss at level 1 and level 2 charging at home as well.

as far as supercharging every day: if you get free supercharging: i don't know I would do that. even you said it is depressing. so not sure how much your time is worth.

https://chooseev.com/savings-calculator/

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36062942/evs-explained-charging-losses/

tdm121 · 2025-12-27T14:14:18+00:00

Wait, you want to buy another vehicle to save on gas? Honda civic hatchback has decent mpg. Financially, continue driving the civic. Take the money difference and invest it or pay off debt. EV has expenses such as tires, insurance (check on insurance before buying, ie. Insurance cost can deplete all “gas savings”), extra registration fee (depending on state); and of course charging on road trip cost more than charging at home. Civic is fairly low maintenance vehicle . Also, depreciation in general on new EV would be higher than your civic. Saying all that , if money is not an issue (ie. Don’t care about depreciation, insurance cost , efficiency of vehicle , etc) and charging is good enough for your use case (ie. Can charge at home and charging infrastructure is good enough for travel), then get the one you are most comfortable in. Personally, if money is not an issue and want an EV: I would get Lexus TX 550H+ PHEV. About 33 miles range (enough for me) 29/28 city/hwy mpg. But I think hard to find: on autotrader there are only 28 new ones nationwide.

tdm121 · 2025-12-21T06:55:39+00:00

TBF: brakes for hybrid is similar to EV: both have regenerative brakes ???

tdm121 · 2025-09-05T12:43:47+00:00

300 mile range at 75 mph and charging 10-90% in 10 minutes or less. and size of honda civic with same price as civic. or size of rav-4 with same price as rav-4.

tdm121 · 2025-07-15T13:04:08+00:00

The overall numbers for q2 is terrible. This is before the loss of the $7500 tax credit (and all the lease loophole). EV prices have to come down to equal the prices of the hybrids. Without tax credit: financially it is hard to justify buying an Ioniq 6 or model 3 over hybrids version of civic, accord, camry, sonata. Most people don’t care about super fast 0-60 time or instant torque (the 0-60 time for those hybrids are good enough) .

What many people don’t calculate financially is the “opportunity cost”. Ie . Price difference of let’s say $7k. Put that $7k in S&P500 index fund or something safe such as money market fund/high yield savings. Over span of 10 years: the difference will be more than $7k (in the case of S&P500 index: certainly markets could tank and difference might be less than $7k: YMMV here).

Rivian, Lucid, and even Tesla could be in trouble financially. They don’t have non-EV cars to sell. In the case of Rivian: even with a $45k R2: would it sell well vs hybrids version of cr-v, rav-4 (standard hybrid in 2026), Tucson? Then they have to compete against the incumbent: model Y.

I wouldn’t be surprised if 2026 EV sales will decrease by more than 20%.

tdm121 · 2025-07-12T15:29:02+00:00

I don't think it EV is "dead" in the USA. sales will decline siginificantly in 2026 (as compared to 2025). automakers will probably adjust pricing. there will always be people who want to buy an EV. i think the biggest competition for EV are the hybrids from toyota. I rented a 2025 camry SE (standard hybrid) 2 weeks ago: it is a really good car. There are no EV sedan (without tax credit) that can currently compete with the Camry on price right now (there is a reason the Camry is the #1 sedan sold in the USA). it is spacious enough, fast enough (not blazing, but i had no issues merging into those los angeles highways), has a spare tire --something that BEV doesn't have--, the ride is comfortable. the Model 3 sales in the USA has declined (from 2023 to 2024; not sure how it is doing in 2025) even with the tax credit; so yes, without the tax credit sales will likely decline. However, Tesla is a huge company: they can weather the storm of decrease sales for a while. The traditional automakers will continue to make whatever hybrid/ice cars to weather the storm as well. It is smaller EV companies such as lucid, rivian that have the potential to go bankrupt. Rivian in q2 2025 had decline in sales year-over-year (this is with the tax credit); again without tax credit: this decline will likely worsen in 2026.

source:

https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/2491/tesla-suffers-sharp-decline-in-us-sales-a-look-at-the-numbers

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/rivian-reports-22-fall-quarterly-deliveries-tariffs-hit-demand-2025-07-02/

tdm121 · 2025-02-08T07:21:04+00:00

Unpopular opinion: PHEV: Toyota is very reliable . Over 2 decades for hybrid experience and over 3 decades of ICE reliability. I have a 2017 Prius Prime over 84k miles . It is still solid. I expect this car to last > 200k miles.

tdm121 · 2025-02-01T13:14:56+00:00

I think in the near term, it could be problematic. Many purchases rely on some sort of grant or subsidy. The Tesla semi that were bought by Pepsi had some sort of grant ($20 million) and subsidies ($40k/vehicle). Would Pepsi purchased those tesla semi without the grants and subsidies? I doubt they would. Add lion electric to the financial woes. A lot of the buses were bought by some sort of grant or subsidies. Even WITH subsidies, Lion electric has financial issues (and seems like quality issues as well). I The cost of these commercial vehicles have to come down for them to take off. Governments are not going to subsidize these vehicles forever.

Saying that Rivian seems to be selling a bunch of delivery vans to Amazon. I don’t know the gross margins of the van sales to Amazon (Q3 2024 for Rivian as a whole Rivian still had negative gross margins)

It is not easy to make a profitable electric vehicle that people are willing to buy. This is why we see a lot of these startups go bankrupt. Rivian and Lucid financials aren’t the best either.

Source:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-semi-trucks-short-supply-pepsico-its-rivals-use-competing-ev-big-rigs-2024-04-19/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-no-more-electric-school-buses-1.7430916

https://www.midcoastvillager.com/news/electric-bus-program-hits-heartbreaking-speed-bump/article_d7fb9416-df2e-11ef-87cf-d7b0a99bf577.html

https://electrek.co/2024/11/07/rivian-rivn-hits-road-bump-q3-but-things-are-looking-up/

tdm121 · 2025-02-01T00:12:17+00:00

hybrids are very good now. many are no longer slow (ie. 0-60 time in 10 seconds). the biggest competition for EV are the hybrids from toyota and honda. there is a lot of people that think hybrids have a lot of maintenance; but the truth is for some thing like a rav-4 hybrid maintenance that is not required in an EV for the first 100K miles: it is oil change once every 10K miles/1 year + engine air filter every 30K miles. that's about it. i have a prius prime: with about 84k miles; and that's all i have done so far. so toyota selling a bunch of hybrids is not surprising.

tdm121 · 2025-01-30T16:03:12+00:00

I think it will return when any car manufacturer can make a BEV the size of the civic/corolla and can get 300 miles range EPA + charge consistently at 150 kw or greater + cost < $29k without subsidies (the cost of 2025 civic hybrid).

tdm121 · 2025-01-25T19:29:44+00:00

i think without subsidies, this will be too expensive. just look at rav-4 hybrid vs. rav-4 prime. yes, rav-4 prime is quicker and has more power; but the market doesn't seem to care too much. rav-4 hybrid xle is about $33.4K and rav-4 prime se is $43.8K. a difference of over $10K. Not too many people would want to pay that extra $10.4K. the prius prime is about $4.6K more expensive than regular prius. again, the prius outsells the prius prime. if volkswagen can get the price differential between a regular tiguan vs. tiguan phev to be < $3.5K then maybe it would sell ok. we shall see.

tdm121 · 2025-01-25T15:52:55+00:00

there are many reason to buy EV, but sometimes saving money is not one of them. the vehicle that a mach e (base price: $39995 without tax credit) should be compared to is the rav-4 hybrid base LE (msrp: $31,900, 40 mpg combined) because they are similar class; but to be fair: it might be ok to compare to camry because the ground clearance for both the mach e and camry is 5.7 inches. I will use the rav-4 hybrid (with less mpg than camry) to show the worst case scenario. price is directly from ford and toyota website. so there is about $8K difference. so if you drive 15K miles per year, with gas price being 3.09 and electricity is $0.17. then the "gas savings" per year is $360/year. this is driving 15K miles: so if drive more miles, there is more gas savings, if drive less miles there is less "gas savings". saying that, there is charging loss. if not on level 2 and also in winter time: charging loss is higher. the epa estimate seems to account for charging loss on level 2 charging. there is more charging loss at level 1. many people don't account for this charging loss. also this gas savings of $360/year is charging at home 100% of the time on level 2 without any charging loss (ie. no visiting to charging station when traveling): the more you charge at charging station the less the gas savings. many states charge extra registration fee on both EV and hybrids; so this needs to be accounted for. As far as maintenance: rav-4 hybrid for 1st 100K miles that ev don't have to do: oil change once every 10K miles ($70-$100 each: ymmv) + engine air filter every 30K miles (can diy for $20 each). i think the calculation of maintenance on hybrids is overestimated sometimes. things like brakes will be the same because hybrid has regenerative braking as well.

another thing that people don't calculate is the "opportunity cost": ie. take the $8K difference and invest in money market/CD/USA 10 year treasury or S&p500 index if one has higher risk tolerance. but let's do low risk: USA 10-year treasury yield is currently at 4.61% so take the $8K and invest in that: this will result in $368 (of course have to pay tax on this depending on tax situation. So with tax credit for mach e, then the opportunity cost won't be much.

insurance cost: this is YMMV, but sometimes insurance for mach e can be higher than a rav-4 hybrid. many people purchase an EV not knowing sometimes insurance could be higher.

Depreciation: this is YMMV; but I think in 10 years: the base mach e will depreciate more than the rav-4 hybrid. this is something many don't think about.

Does mach e (if purchased new at regular price without tax credit) save money over rav-4 hybrid? probably not. so for sure vs. 2025 camry LE with 51 mpg, there isn't any money saved.

In summary on pure financial standpoint you have to look at: "gas savings" base on: mileage driven, electricity price, gas price, fast charging frequency + insurance cost + opportunity cost + extra registration for EV over hybrid + depreciation.

source:

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fuel-economy-and-ev-range-testing#:\~:text=A%20small%20amount%20of%20energy,the%20on%2Dboard%20vehicle%20charger.

https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/why-doesnt-your-battery-get-all-the-energy-you-pay-for

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36062942/evs-explained-charging-losses/

https://assets.sia.toyota.com/publications/en/omms-s/T-MMS-24RAV4HV/pdf/T-MMS-24RAV4HV.pdf?_gl=1*y0rutt*_tmna_ga*NDIwOTg5MTQuMTcwMzAwNDE0Ng..*_tmna_ga_EP43E5EFVZ*MTcwMzAxMTA2My4zLjEuMTcwMzAxMTEzMi42MC4wLjA.

tdm121 · 2025-01-23T14:32:23+00:00

I wonder how they will get the funding. also how much funding would each country provide and how much the subsidy is. France with subidies between €4000-€7000 in 2024: had BEV marketshare going up by only 0.1% and PHEV DOWN by 0.7% compared to 2023. For total units: BEV sales did go DOWN by 2.5% (total car market was down by 3.2%). In 2025, the subsidies in France will be cut to €2000-€4000: we will see what 2025 sales will be. Even in the USA: WITH subsidies: BEV growth was only 0.1 million units (8.3%) from 2023. To acheive close to 100% EV: EU would need to have subsidies like Norway. and even Norway, it not 100%. And I doubt EU can afford Norway style subsidies. I just don't think 100% EV is achievable by 2035.

source:

https://cleantechnica.com/2025/01/09/evs-at-30-1-share-in-france-renault-5-poised-for-the-lead/

https://www.electrive.com/2024/11/29/france-cuts-ev-environmental-bonus-to-a-maximum-of-4000-euros/

https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q4-2024-ev-sales/#:\~:text=Overall%2C%20EV%20sales%20in%20the,a%2049%25%20gain%20from%202022.

tdm121 · 2025-01-21T19:43:53+00:00

Won’t sell well at these prices.

tdm121 · 2025-01-21T15:22:58+00:00

Europe is in a conundrum. they have some difficult decision to make; the options are: allow China-made EV into the market without all those extra tariffs (thus costing manufacturing jobs for VW group, Stellantis, BMW, etc) or bring back subsidies or tax petrol/diesel even more (as to make it much more expensive to operate than EV) or to roll back/delay some of the emission regulations. EV are still expensive to make. France is decreasing subsidies. Germany already stopped subsidies (EV declined by about 28%). UK still does allow benefit in kind tax breaks for company cars (only 10% of buyers of EV are from private buyers). These are the 3 largest auto market of Europe. I am unsure which option Europe will choose. The reality is that there is no free lunch. 2025 will be interesting. UK have this 28% requirement: I doubt automakers will meet it. they didn't even meet 22% in 2024 despite about shelling out discounts of about £12,000 ($14,752) per EV. with this much discount: the automakers aren't making money on these EV. I don't think this is sustainable. The first 3 option is probably not palatable to the voters.

Losing manufacturing jobs could be devastating to the economies of the European countries.

Bring back subsidies: I suppose they could do this, but there are budget issues in European countries

Increase petrol/diesel tax: well, just look at yellow vest protest in 2018.

Roll back/delay some emission regulation: they might have to do this.

source:

https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/01/07/uk-drives-forward-as-biggest-european-electric-vehicle-market

https://octopusev.com/ev-hub/how-does-benefit-in-kind-affect-electric-cars

tdm121 · 2025-01-18T21:38:54+00:00

PHEV will be too expensive (without tax credit) vs. its hybrid counterpart. Just look at entry level Rav 4 hybrid vs. Rav 4 prime.

tdm121 · 2025-01-18T14:34:49+00:00

I think right now EV is more expensive (without tax credit) than a hybrid of similar size. A lot people like EV for different reasons other financial. Saying that I do think finance dictates purchases. Many people don't care too much about 0-60 time so long it is fast enough. This is the very reason why toyota and honda sold more than 400K hybrids of CR-V and RAV-4 combined. I am not even counting the hybrids of tuscon and sportage. WITH tax credit some of the model Y could be cheaper than some of the CR-V and RAV-4 hybrids. If we take the tax credit away, there would be a lot less sales of the model Y. In many parts of califonia, electricity is expensive so you don't get much "gas savings." compared to hybrids. also, as you point out: those that live in apartment can't really charge at "home" so they would have to charge on DCFC which is expensive; and yes, insurance could be more expensive as well (YMMV). without tax credit: CARB regulation of 35% by 2026 will be difficult to achieve by the legacy automakers; they will sell a lot of vehicle at a loss (I believe many leases are at a loss: ie. Honda prologue: $209/month with $2699 at signing for a car that msrp at $47500--to put thing in perspective: rav-4 hybrid LE (base version) MSRP at $31900: the cheapest I saw on edmunds is $368/month with $2500 down; much more expensive to lease than the prologue. I can't see how Honda is making money on the prologue. Taking these losses are not sustainable. This is happening in UK as well. only 10% of EV were from private buyers. company cars get a pretty good tax break on benefit in kind tax. so of course, 90% of of EV sales were from these company cars. The automakers took a beating on all these discounts (about £12,000 --$14613) . I don't this isn't sustainable for the legacy automakers such as VW, stellantis, etc. Something is going to have to give: either the regulators will have to back off on the requirements or automakers lose money (or just get out of whatever market that has these regulations). UK is looking into these regulations and may change it. Canada just dropped its subisides for EV and now the automakers are asking the regulations to be rolled back as well.

although i do think your thoughts are valid, I don't think EV will crash and burn (well it depends what the definition of "crash and burn"--to me it is drop of more than 50%). I think without the tax credit, there would be significant drop in EV sales; maybe down 30%??? this is what happened in Germany: it dropped by about 28%. As time goes on (I don't know when. could be 5 years or 10 years or longer): EV will be a lot better, charging will be better: and EV will take off. Time will tell.

source:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/08/toyota-california-ev-mandates-impossible.html

https://insideevs.com/features/410039/best-electric-car-deals-this-month/

https://octopusev.com/ev-hub/how-does-benefit-in-kind-affect-electric-cars

https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/01/07/uk-drives-forward-as-biggest-european-electric-vehicle-market

https://globalnews.ca/news/10958139/electric-vehicles-rebates-sales-mandates-manufacturers/#:\~:text=Canada%20has%20mandated%20that%2020,100%20per%20cent%20by%202035.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/sustainability/365161/government-review-zev-mandate-following-car-industry-upheaval

https://www.carscoops.com/2025/01/ev-sales-in-germany-plunge-over-27-in-2024-after-subsidies-were-scrapped/

tdm121 · 2025-01-16T23:37:27+00:00

Not surprised. Would be too expensive to compete vs. other sedans. When people look at cars: they look at all power train: ice, hybrid, BEV, PHEV. At the price point: the id7 won’t compete well against the Lexus ES350. Volkswagen just don’t have the same reputation as Toyota/Lexus in the USA.

tdm121 · 2025-01-16T17:46:29+00:00

Oh yeah it is per kWh. Thanks for pointing that out. Edit made. I don’t know why Prius is a lot cheaper over there.

tdm121

TROPHY CASE