• conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    21 days ago

    Tbh, all the Japanese makers tend to be really shy about electric and big on hydrogen for some reason that I’ve never quite got a handle on.

    • Dotcom@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      21 days ago

      Does Japan have easier / better access to Hydrogen than other places? From what I understand the hydrogen cars are really cool but there’s a lot of logistical headache to store hydrogen as a fuel

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        21 days ago

        Japan is smaller, has reasonable public transportation, so people there drive shorter distances and less frequently.

        The big problem with hydrogen is getting fueling stations. Japan is probably the right size where hydrogen fuel stations can effectively serve the demand.

        The big problem with batteries is they require much more critical material than other automotive energy storage. Japan is a small(ish) island nation. Getting those materials is expensive.

        That’s my head cannon for it.

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          21 days ago

          The other possibility I was wondering about is if Honda or Toyota envisioned themselves as becoming hydrogen suppliers, so that they’d be building their own vertical integration into the market.

    • Waldelfe@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      19 days ago

      I worked at a Japanese company in Europe for a while. The manufactures car components. They really REALLY pushed the hydrogen and had their own hydrogen division in Germany. I never fully understood why, it always seemed so weird how focussed they were on it.