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I think everyone is misreading the hydrogen thing. Japan has very expensive electricity production costs. Fossil fuels have to be imported, and they don't have
by legitster 3y ago
I think everyone is misreading the hydrogen thing.
Japan has very expensive electricity production costs. Fossil fuels have to be imported, and they don't have favorable geography for wind or solar. So their only future is nuclear.
Furthermore, developing a large battery infrastructure would create further dependencies on rival economies that don't get along super well with Japan (Korea and China).
Given that Japanese auto-makers have already dumped billions of R&D into rival battery technologies that have not yet panned out, it is somewhat understandable that they pushed for hydrogen for their own domestic interests.
- DoesntMatter22 3y agoThis has nothing to do with domestic needs. Toyota said they plan to target Europe and China. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-targets-europe-china-hydrogen-sales-pivot-2023-07-11/#:~:text=TOKYO%2C%20July%2011%20(Reuters),2030%2C%20executives%20said%20on%20Tuesday https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota....
- legitster 3y ago> "This may be a strange way of putting it, but 200,000 is not a big number," Toyota's Chief Technology Officer, Hiroki Nakajima told reporters. "We believe this number and more can be achieved." This also seems like a far-cry from Toyota declaring that Hydrogen is the future.
- DoesntMatter22 3y agoGuess you haven't seen what Toyota has been saying for the last 5 years, about how electric cars aren't the future and the future is hydrogen. They have stated this dozens of times. Then in January they said that they changed their mind and the future is electric, then they changed their mind again and went back to hydrogen. They realistically have no idea what they are doing on this but they are profitable so they can deal with their issues easier than others.