They’re basically a compliance car from a couple reviews I’ve seen

Obviously it depends on the market but in Canada, this was true between 2021 and 2025; in 2026 most of these BEVs received a substantial revamp and are now pretty competitive in terms of specs with other BEVs. For example, the first bZ had a terrible range of 290 Km in 2021 (dead last for its category in the market). Since 2026, that range is now 400 or 468 depending on the trim, not top of class but very competitive

There’s a group of customers who won’t buy anything but Toyota or at a stretch Honda because of the reliability reputation, which in turn damages EV adoption

I have only had 1 Toyota of my own, driven it for 9 years until I got rear ended and insurance wrote it off. EVERYTHING worked on that car just as well as it did the day I bought it (full disclosure, I was spot on with its maintenance but other than that, it was just a great car)

I would agree that between 2015 and 2021 or so, if you had to buy a car and would not look past Toyota you'd wind up with a Hybrid not an EV because how Toyota was betting on Hydrogen but today they have 14 Hybrid models (basically the entire line is now available hybrid), 2 Plug in Hybrids and 3 more BEV.

I think Toyota needs a leadership change before they take BEV seriously, but at least there’s an entry point for those customers.

I would have agreed to this statement 5 years ago, but I don't think it applies today. Many other brands are now behind Toyota, even on this, again. And the cherry on top (for me at least) is that Toyota's hybrid tech is pretty mature and goes very easily into their BEV line now