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Japan has no domestic oil, something they have been keenly aware of since WW2. I think they wanted Hydrogen to be the future so badly because it would remove th
by dahfizz 4y ago
Japan has no domestic oil, something they have been keenly aware of since WW2. I think they wanted Hydrogen to be the future so badly because it would remove that disadvantage.
Now Japan has to import the batteries, and the fossil fuels to charge them.
- AlotOfReading 4y agoHydrogen has significant geopolitical advantages for Japan, but it was also very unclear which path was better back then. Even in California we had political darlings like Bloom Energy and fleets of fuel cell buses crawling around city streets. It was only around 2016 or so that battery technology and renewables started to clearly win out and it was too late then to change course.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoThe Toyota Mirai and the Tesla Model 3 weigh approximately the same amount and so contain approximately the same amount of imported material. Switching to Hydrogen does not reduce the amount of raw material imports compared to switching to battery electric vehicles.
- midoridensha 4y agoWhat does domestic oil have to do with anything? Japan doesn't have domestic natgas either AFAIK, and you need that to make hydrogen unless you make it from electrolysis of water, which needs lots of electricity, which usually comes from fossil fuels too. Hydrogen had no way of removing any disadvantage for them. It was just something they were ahead in and thought they could push on the world as the replacement for gasoline, and profit in the process.