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
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.
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.
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.
I’m by no means a car guy but I thought hydrogen was more Toyota’s thing?
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.
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
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.
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.
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.