Toyota dealers: no, we're not ready to sell EVs quite yet

Toyota dealers are just fine with hybrids, but they're not quite ready for electric vehicles.

That's the gist of a new survey from AutoRetailNet, which found that most Toyota dealers think the Japanese automaker made the right decision to delay any kind of largescale launch of its Scion iQ electric vehicle, because of what's perceived to be limited sales potential.

About 85 percent of those dealers said EVs are more than five years away from generating substantial sales, according to Plug In Cars. And more than eight in 10 said Toyota was right to delay mass production of the Scion iQ EV. Still, almost two-thirds thought the EV would be produced in the future.

Toyota said last month that it would make only about 100 iQ EVs in the U.S. and Japan, a smaller batch than what was previously planned.