Toyota got a lot of bad press this week for announcing a major recall of their Prius model due to a malfunction in their braking system. Apparently the error is specific to the braking system in a hybrid car. Hybrids like the Prius brake differently than regular cars, they use both friction from pads pressed against drums or discs and also use the car’s electric motor to slow down. This is also needed in order to be able to regain energy from the braking motion. Is the bad press deserved or not? In some parts yes, it turns out Toyota was aware of the problem before and did not disclose this information. While the braking problem only sometimes occurs and which has the effect of suspending braking for about a second or so, this has already resulted in a couple of accidents. Toyota should have gone public with this information long before it came out now. When large companies detect such an error, especially in such a successful model, the pressure to cover it up to extend the success is very big. The truth usually always comes out though and obviously, Toyota should have treated this differently.
On the other hand, Toyota has been the carmaker that dared to set the stage for alternative powered cars in a time when this really was not yet that mainstream. They are now in their third generation hybrid models and you have to give them credit for that. It is not so much that there is a problem with the braking system. Toyota has shown innovation in moving forward with this technology and while causing a big short-term financial caveat for them and their shareholders (and not to forget, injury to some unfortunate drivers), they still could survive this ‘crisis’ (as Toyota President Akio Toyoda calls it) and come out like the company that drives green innovation and now has to deal with a minor setback. They do deserve credit for innovating and I wish that the media would give them some slack for it. After all, there is no innovation without sometimes screwing up. Personally, I don’t believe in hybrid technology. I think it is just a transitional technology but I do think it is good that they pioneered in it and that they have created a market for it.
It will be interesting to see if this incident has a longer lasting impact on the popularity of Priuses. Especially at a time when two other Japanese firms are pushing a different kind of technology. Nissan/Renault will launch a number of fully electric vehicles that will rely on an intricate replaceable battery system as built by the company Better Place, a startup of former SAP executive Shai Agassi. I was at a meeting with Mr. Agassi last year in Amsterdam where he told about how his company got started and you have to give credit to Nissan/Renault for believing in Better Place’s scheme around replaceable batteries. (Mr. Agassi also spoke at TED) A good example of a company really taking a stand for something. This will enable them to take the majority of the early electric car market or it will backfire because the replaceable battery system may be run over in time by faster loading fixed batteries. The other Japanese carmaker that is working on yet a different alternative technology is Honda, who is betting on a hydrogen powered car. It is very exciting to see these different technologies come to market and see which will prevail. It may not always work, and sometimes needs a push from a government like Better Place & Nissan/Renault in Israel, but this is the free market economy at it’s best. Let’s hope that Toyota will not suffer too much from this incident that this will slow down (no pun intented 
) their work on more sustainable cars.
To be continued.
